The Mark of a Real Leader Is Knowin' When It's Time To Have the Little Woman Ride To the Rescue

Nedra Pickler, AP: First Lady Becomes President's Defender

Never a Discouraging Word:

Mrs. Bush said Tuesday that much more human good than bad has come from the disaster, despite what people see on TV. She said the evacuees she has met in her three trips to the Gulf Coast are hopeful and thankful that they don't have to start from rock bottom because of the donations and the kindness of strangers.
"That's what I've seen at each of the shelters I've visited," she said. "I've never heard a single word of complaint."

Hmmm. Mrs. Bush seems to be an expert about "what people see on TV", but she hasn't heard a word of complaint. It puzzled me for a moment, before I realized she must be watching with the sound off.

Laura Bush, to the Heritage Foundation:

"We've seen terrible, terrible things and we've seen unbelievably unselfish acts of giving as well by communities all across the United States and, of course, many more unselfish acts of giving than bad things," she said in a speech Tuesday to the conservative Heritage Foundation. "Maybe the media hasn't shown us that much, but we've read about it and we do know about it."

Now, the first thing that occurred to me here was that Laura sounds an awful lot like Hillary's Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, except without any evidence. I watched a lot of teevee coverage the first week. The terrible, terrible things I saw for the first 72 hours were, basically, what the Hurricane had done to the Gulf Coast and what the levee breaks had done to New Orleans. I call that "news". After the storm had passed and we got away from shots of beparka-ed newshounds standing in high winds, most of the pictorial coverage consisted of the Coast Guard rescuing people. I call that "about as unselfish an act as you can perform without drowning yourself."

For godssake, there's been no lack of uplifting stories. The teevee loves uplifting stories.

I would offer one modest suggestion, however. The next time Mrs. Bush sees some terrible, terrible things on her teevee she might want to pick up the phone and make sure the Department of Homeland Security [sic] knows about them.