Playing the game
I think we've established that he didn't "play the game" the way a more skilled politician would. As Clinton knew, if you can fake sincerity, the rest is easy. Bush sucks at it.
I think it would also be a pretty good bet that if he had dropped everything and landed the Presidential helicopter at the Superdome while the wind was still blowing, he would have been berated by the very same people as "doing it for the polls."
An example of this from an earlier storm.
Even before many residents were allowed back into their own homes, President Bush headed to Punta Gorda for his own first hand look, getting a bird's eye view from his helicopter and a quick briefing from his brother the governor and local leaders.
Consoling those who have lost everything, Mr. Bush assured devastated residents that help is on the way.
"The government's job is to help people re-build their lives and that's what's happening," he said.
Even before the storm hit, the president declared four counties disaster areas to speed federal money to victims. But that quick response fueled suspicion that he is using disaster politics to help his campaign in one of the most critical battleground states, a notion the president dismissed Sunday.
"Yeah, and if I didn't come they'd have said he should have been here more rapidly," Mr. Bush said.
The president is trying not to repeat his father's mistakes. After Hurricane Andrew flattened parts of south Florida in 1992, state officials blamed the first President Bush for not answering their calls for help quickly enough, and trying to make up that by overcompensating later.
It's a lesson the current president and political analysts have not forgotten.
Face it, for a lot of people out there, the only correct action Bush could ever accomplish is to stand in front of the American people on national live TV and rip his guts open all over the podium with a short sword.
They aren't kidding anyone.