The Lights in New Orleans

The President, last night and this morning, projected the need, desperation, and desire to rebuild. He noted the vast inequalities, the disparate poverty, the sense of isolation and abandonment, and vowed to engage in the most dramatic reconstruction the world has seen. He offered hope and engagement in the wake of the disaster. Bishop T.D. Jakes, speaking before the president this morning, engaged in an evokative metaphor:

"Katrina, perhaps, she has done something to this nation that needed to be done," Jakes said. "We can no longer be a nation that overlooks the poor and the suffering, that continues past the ghetto on our way to the Mardi Gras."

But we must continue to be keenly aware. A President must project hopeful leadership. That he is doing so now, when he was incapable of doing so one week ago, reeks of political need in slumping numbers. We must recongize this. We have to consider: is the President's end to genuinely rebuild a great American city that he neglected in crisis, or is it to rebuild vitally lost political capital? Will he convince America that he is genuine, or will they regard his negligence as damning?

One only needs to go to the Actions of the President to understand where he really is in this whole affair. When it comes to The Administration's on-the-ground speeches, they have no permanent answers. They have only their PR team. Always remember: the actions of the government prove their intentions. Therefore, the inaction of the governement then and their trifles now, prove their intents. We turn, via Atrios, to NBC's Brian Williams:

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.

and:

Early reaction seems to be this: there will be local anger in this region (and many may find this frustrating) at the very portions of the speech meant to convey real and rare contrition on the part of the President. The anger may be in reaction to the government denials (of any major problems) and reassuring statements during that initial week of hell in this city. It truly appeared to be, as some branded it, a split-screen reality. During one particularly devastating briefing, Secretary Michael Chertoff appeared to be delivering a sunny and in-control message, especially when juxtaposed with the chaos that MSNBC, for one, was showing in the other half of the screen.

There will be the predictable chatter about the White House advance team's choice of the backdrop... one of the truly beautiful places in the Quarter (indeed in all of New Orleans). The other choices, a friend in politics points out: were devastation (a downer but real) or desolation (a compromise location that would match the reality on the ground here tonight).