Scrappleface: White House to Boost Empathy Statements
As one unnamed reporter put it, "In the hours immediately following the disaster, millions of people in Thailand, India, Indonesia, Somalia and elsewhere turned their eyes toward America to discover whether the president would rush back to Washington D.C. and empathize with their plight. But Bush stayed in Crawford and made just one official statement, as U.S. military planes surveyed the damaged area and Air Force C-130 cargo planes with humanitarian goods headed for the region. It's as if Bush thinks that action is a substitute for news conferences."
LOL. I have always hated the empathy dance after disasters, particularly the now required visit by the President to the disaster site. What is he going to do? The visit to the WTC site soon after the attack on 9/11 had value because it made a statement about security that gave confidence to people that they could return to Manhattan. Why is it necessary, though, to tour hurricane damage by helicopter? Isn't that the experts job?
We had a number of our operations in Florida shut down for weeks after the recent hurricanes there. Several of my friends asked me if I was going to go visit the damage. "What for" I asked? The damage had been described to me, and the folks in charge there who knew the area had a good plan in place for fixing things. If I showed up, work would have to stop for a day while everyone showed me around. The time to go back is after it is cleaned up, when you can thank everyone for their hard work. But of course, I didn't have to deal with the media editorializing on my heartlessness because I didn't run to Florida and sight-see the damage.
