What a coincidence.....Nagin's black and Obama's black. I guess one can conclude that you believe negros' are destructive. Would that conclusion be correct?
No.
I was referring to the fact that Nagin is well-educated but when it came down to dealing with a crisis he was totally rattled beyond functionality.
While NOLA was rocked by Katrina, Nagin sat in his room at the New Orleans Hyatt (using the one electric generator he could commandeer to power the elevators at the Hyatt so he didn't have to traverse the stairs), shivering from fear, while Terry Ebbert tried to undo the damage from Nagin's inept planning.
The difference between Ebbert and Nagin? Nagin had the brains of course. But Ebbert was a Vietnam vet who had faced adversity. In Ebbert's words, "Once you have faced your maker a couple of times, you tend not to get rattled very easily".
We don't know how well Obama will handle adversity because he hasn't done it; he hasn't been 'tested', so to speak. He may do fine. But he could very well be like Nagin -- frightened, overwhelmed, inundated, when times get tough.
A person who has never run a business, never held an accountable job, never faced true adversity, never fought for his country -- never done any of those things -- just cannot be relied upon to function under pressure. Those who have done one or more of these things have experienced real pressure and have a better chance of functioning well in a high pressure environment.
I think Katrina makes a good microcosm for examination of what it takes to run a government effectively and to deal with crises as they present, that is, HOW NOT TO DO IT. Nagin, Blanco, and Chertoff are all examples of what unqualified government personnel can do to make a bad situation worse ("Brownie", who took the blame for Katrina, really was less the problem than was Chertoff who was slow on the uptake, although both failed). But Nagin. Nagin killed a lot of innocent, helpless people by his inability to function in crisis.
Nagin was indisputably the most incompetent player in the entire sordid affair; yet he was well-educated, presented a facade of good performance, but when it came down to it, he was shown to be incompetent. Even stranger, he was re-elected by a predominantly black electorate (and in spite of being a conservative). |
