Off behind the New York Times pay wall, John Biguenet is writing about the other disaster that hit New Orleans:

The grandiose promises of reconstruction aid made by President Bush before St. Louis Basilica in a dramatically lit nighttime speech to the nation turn out to have been nothing more than lies by a weakened politician. It is now expected that what aid we get will be funds redirected from existing poverty programs, and unlike any other federal disaster aid in history, we will be made to pay it all back.

As after 9/11, Dubya did what he thought was required --- he stood in front of the cameras, and gave a sonorous speech, in suitably serious tones. (Give him credit --- that's more than he sometimes can manage. "Now watch this drive."). He's not so good on the follow-through, though. Not in New Orleans nor in New York, where promises of billions of dollars in aid also famously failed to come through.

But the speech is all he needs to get credit from his followers for "leadership".