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Politics : FREE AMERICA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldworldnet who wrote (6677)	5/23/2006 12:54:07 PM
From: Oral Roberts	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14758

This article came from Lindy's thread but thought some here would find it interesting also. A good piece for folks who don't "get" Nagin: nola.com Outsiders baffled by Nagin's appeal Tuesday, May 23, 2006 Stephanie Grace Whenever I've left town in the months since Katrina, wherever I've traveled, people have asked the same question: "What on earth is with your mayor?" It happened after that first week, when Ray Nagin's profanity-laced plea for help made national news. And it happened a whole lot more after the infamous January "chocolate city" diatribe made him the butt of late-night jokesters everywhere. Here's what I tell them: "If you met him, you'd like him. If you sat down to talk with him, you'd come away impressed." After they look at me skeptically, I usually throw in an "I swear." Next, invariably, comes a history lesson. I mention the moment he announced a new era in shoot-from-the-hip political discourse by promising not just to take a new approach to the city-owned Armstrong International Airport, but to "sell that sucker." I describe his loose-limbed walk; the sly, relaxed tone in his voice; the gleam in his eye and the wicked grin when he announces that he's about to throw away the script. I tell them about his fondness for hip-hop vernacular. I haven't exhaustively researched the subject, but I'm pretty sure Nagin's the only New Orleans mayor to ever use term "bling-bling" in a state of the city address. I explain that beneath all of that lies a charming, creative, savvy, often impetuous operator who doesn't think like a politician, often to his detriment. But that doesn't mean he doesn't think. And if that doesn't work, I revert to an old standby. "It's a New Orleans thing," I tell them. "You wouldn't understand." In fact, that's pretty much the way Nagin himself put it, when a reporter suggested that the outside world was shocked at his victory. "I just think they don't get it," Nagin said Sunday. "They don't get the uniqueness of New Orleans. They don't really get what really happened during Katrina . . . And they really don't get Ray Nagin. Sometimes I don't get Ray Nagin, so it's all right." We'll leave that last part alone for now, but the rest of it rings true. If New Orleans is unique, it's in part because the city breeds and values its larger-than-life characters, and Nagin is certainly one of those. As for those who bash Nagin for how he handled himself during the catastrophe, Saturday's results show that most voters understand that there wasn't much anyone could have done. As for "getting" Ray Nagin, you have to admit, those who see a one-dimensional, cartoonish figure really don't. The majority who voted to re-elect him see someone who kept his cool and held on to his trademark optimism through unbelievably trying circumstances. They see someone who still has lots of ideas, and who promises to do a better job of following through. And I'm betting that, on closer inspection, they see that even the unfortunate "chocolate city" comment made sense, in context. Here was a man who was reacting -- OK, overreacting -- to genuine fear that some New Orleanians weren't welcome back. It was pandering, pure and simple, and it was awkward because he's not a natural panderer. In fact, when Nagin finally went to largely white Lakeview to apologize, he talked about how his early administration was so colorblind that he got attacked as a "white man in black skin." The audience nodded, because they knew it was true. From then on, far more of the local complaints over Nagin's comments focused not on the mayor's intent, but on how his comments were perceived in Washington and around the country. In short, having taken full measure of the man, more than half the voters in this city decided they're willing to trust him with their future. Before they scoff, people who don't live here might try to walk a mile in those voters' shoes.