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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
President Barack Obama, center, meets with local residents during his tour of the Bridgewood neighborhood in LaPlace, La., in Saint John the Baptist Parish, as he tours the area to survey the ongoing response and recovery efforts to Hurricane Isaac on Monday.
NEW ORLEANS, La. – At the end of a four-day trip filled with campaign events, President Barack Obama put politics aside to visit a Louisiana town hit by Hurricane Isaac and talk with local officials about the recovery effort.
In brief remarks after touring part of the town of LaPlace in St. John the Baptist Parish, the president said he was impressed by the resiliency of the residents.
“There is enormous faith here, enormous strength here you can see it in these families,” he said. “They were just devastated a few days ago and they're already smiling and laughing,” he said.
Residents struggle with the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, which has left behind feet of standing water. In Louisiana, about 2,500 people are still in shelters. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
Local reports say St. John the Baptist Parish experienced up to 18 inches of floodwater from the hurricane, an unprecedented level of flooding for the parish, according to an administration official.
Before his tour of the neighborhood, the president was briefed by local parish officials about the situation in the area and noted that the biggest concern was helping those who had been displaced.
“Obviously, right now we’re still in recovery mode,” he said.
Obama was accompanied by Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who met him at the airport alongside a bipartisan group that included New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, Reps. Cedric Richmond and Jeff Landry and FEMA administrator Craig Fugate.
Thanking the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Obama subtly referred to the recovery efforts to mitigate the damage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 under former President George W. Bush, which were widely viewed as a failure.
“In the past we sometimes haven’t seen the kind of coordination needed for these kinds of disasters,” Obama said.
But he also emphasized that this type of natural disaster transcends political labels.
“When disasters like this happen we set aside whatever petty disagreements we might have,” Obama said. “Nobody’s a Democrat or a Republican.”
The president returns to Washington, D.C. on Monday evening. He heads Tuesday to Norfolk, Va. for a campaign event.
Leave a Comment:
"put aside politics" hell. It was just one big photo op
No, and romney's visit was what? Stopped in for some red beans and rice?
Obama 2012
Noladude -
And probably because his polls showed that he would be even further down if he did not come at all.
Obama is moving forward to destroy America.
The only way Obama will remain in the White House is to declare Martial Law after EMP's knock out our electrical grid and the United Nations tries to disarm Americans and send us to FEMA Concentration Camps.
Obama is as fake as his birth certificate.
Impeach Obama NOW!!! Before he destroys the rest of America.
World Warriors, Freedom Fighters and others like them unite to protect our rights of FREEDOM.
P.S. The 11th anniversary of 9/11 is coming up. Be prepared America.
Keith L: See the difference?
Apparently, you don't. Katrina was a disaster of Epic Proportions. It flattened that city, causing damage that reached into 80 Billion Dollars, killing almost 2000 people and devastating an entire region. Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in US History and was one of the five deadliest hurricanes in US History. It varied between a CAT 5 and a CAT 3 hurricane from FL over the Gulf to LA and beyond. 80% of th city was completely flooded and the floodwaters stayed for weeks and weeks.
Hurricane Isaac. CAT 1 at landfall but a tropical storm for landfall in LA, killed 5 in all of LA, 2 in FL, 2 in MS. None of the City's refortified levees gave out, the only people in danger were those outside of the City's levee protected areas who were warned to leave but chose to stay. Most of the students at Tulane U remained and none were reported endangered or injured.
The many, many differences between Katrina and Isaac are so completely Epic, you should be embarrassed for trying to compare the two incidents. I was constantly on the phone with my boys, who are both in NOLA, living right down by the hospital, and they were never in any danger. Still, I was constantly on the phone with them anyway. :)
Get real, people.
NBC is a liberal wing supporter.
At this time, this close to the election they will hire people more than likely to collapse.
Hell, for all we know it could be the moderators doing it.
This is rapidly becoming a forum that is entirely too one sided.
And it is NOT because of a lack of conservatives here.
Conservatives do not quit.
Poll: Romney gets convention bounce, takes national lead
By Jonathan Easley - 08/30/12 07:58 PM ET
ROFLMAO!!!
I got collapsed because I made a comment about collapsed comments!!!!!!
What do you expect from the liberals on the site?
You're too late Obama, Romney has already beat you to the area.
I'm a proud Fomer member of the U.S.Army Engineers, now medically retiared. my "Question" is WHY in the world would anyone in there right mind want to live and build normal homes and families in and around a Major City bulit by fools 12ft. below "Sea level"? This stuff with hurracians happens EVERY YEAR , sure not always in the same place but , come the season you've got only a 50/50 chance of not being hit! And for the people along "OLD Miss. leavies, and dykes are not the answer it by history worsens the flooding by makeing the water levels higher than normal in that given when it leeks or brakes and the do all the time EVERY YEAR somewhere. And then these good people yell why doesn't the people of America and the government help! When they know whats going to happen! Two good rules to stand by Never Build below sea level,and never bulid on a fault line! Good old Mother nature will take you out, no questions asked
Well, first off New Orleans has been slowly sinking over it's 300 year history so it hasn't always been below sea level. It has always been strategically important, Battle of New Orleans anyone? It is a major port for the Gulf area(pop quiz:how many refineries and chem plants are in LA?) It is the Gateway to not only the Mississippi(lots of cargo travels thru) and the Intercostal Waterway. Along with all the other industries, it would be foolish and economically devastating to move all the people away. Some scientists think engineers need to understand more about geology, in order to solve the levee problem.
Especially as the improvements to the levees created a new flooding problem for Braithwaite.
Wesley -
Considering that the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the design of the levees in the New Orleans area, can you explain why the engineers can't come up with a way to use the silt from annual floods to restore the marshes instead of letting it wash out to sea and off the continental shelf? Especially as this is why the city is sinking.
You would think the storm hit in Ohio. Seems The Amateur lives there now. Leading from behind, Romney beats him there by three days.
Ah, backfire,
Yes, Romney got there first.
BUT, President Obama had the foresight to send FEMA and all of its resources to the Gulf area a week before the storm hit anywhere in the U.S. That is why no one had to survive for three days without so much as a drink of fresh water.
So, technically, our President had the wisdom and foresight to prevent a tragic disaster for thousands of human beings.
Well Done, President Obama!
Obama/Biden 2012
Clinton/Warren 2016
butterfly -
Hate to burst your bubble, but the governors of the states made sure that the declaration of emergency got done before the storm (unlike Blanco). It still took Obama to 2 days after the storm to approve them - even when they knew where the storm would be hitting.
Oh, and FYI - MRE's, Ice, and water was not available until Friday after the storm - 3 days after the storm hit.
I know because I live in the affected area.
Poll: Romney gets convention bounce, takes national lead
By Jonathan Easley - 08/30/12 07:58 PM ET
Why don't the right address the lies that are reported even by Fox News? They say both sides like, but does that explain the bald face lies that the right keep saying? Welfare lies, even Republican Governors dispute. Stop the lies, then maybe we can have a real debate. When Fox News has a problem with the lies, even you should take notice.
Other than a slight problem with the Corps of Engineers in one parish, in which there was a problem with one lock that was leaking, the Obama Administration once again proved its superiority to the prior administration and its "heck of a job" Brownie.
Suck it up Tea Baggers. Our guy is better - in so many ways! Please just give up on the wooden bobblehead. He is an insincere megalomaniac - another Nixon in the making. His father was decent but he got screwed over by the party. So now Mitt is another broken toy. John McCain told you that Romney was a weather vane. But you just won't give up on him. And Ann Romney is pathetic: "I told him he couldn't run unless he promised me he could fix America. And he said, he could, and that settled it." She might as well have said he couldn't run unless he wore his red Superman cape. But there's a sucker born every minute. And millions of them wear coonskin caps and wave 13 colony flags. They might as well wear Elmer Fudd hunting caps.
You should read all the nasy comment being posted over on ABC by republicans regarding the president's trip down to the gulf. Ihave never in my entire life read so much hate. The said the president only went down there for a photo op and made a fool of himself. I would like to answer those republicans here asnd now.
Well, well…and I supose your great white god two faced Romney and his little
bat eared sidekick did not go down there for a “pohoto op” right? Don’t be silly
of course he what there for a photo op as his ugly stiff faced mug was all over
the net. Now what was it he said to that little old lady that lost her home and
all her belongings? Oh, yes, that right the great white god Romney told her to
“go back home and call 211" and this guy with an estimated 250 Million Dollars
stuffed in overseas and off shore banks. Good advice except for one little tiny
fact—the poor woman no longer HAD a home to go back to! What a bunch of lying
crazy and total self center and pathetic people you republicans are. In the
entire three days of your boring convention not a single speaker offered a
prayer for those suffering in the gulf–NOT ONE OF THEM! Go back and craw under
the rock your crawled out from. At least president Obama offered the people he
talked with federal aid and was genuinely sad at the suffering he saw around
him. Can't say as much for your great white god and his batty little
sidekick.
Kannin,
Your just boring! You state the same old lies and expect different results. We all know what that means. Obama was anticipating what would happen with Issac and Bush prayed for nothing to happen with Katrina. Planning always has a better result than hoping that nothing will happen.
The ONE AND ONLY reason the REPUBLICANS don't like OBAMA is because hes BLACK. They wont say it but the (GOP) GRAND OLD PARTY is a bunch of ARCHIE BUNKER RACIST that don't want a BLACK man in charge ! LOOK how they've blocked everything that would have put AMERICA on the path of recovery. This is not accidental. Mitch McConnell and ERIC CANTOR have done everything including meeting in secret the night Obama was sworn in to make sure OBAMA was a 1 term president no matter what it cost the AMERICAN PEOPLE. These are the people who want us to trust them with the future of our COUNTRY!!
WE CANT GO BACK TO THE G.W.BUSH AND THE I"M A DICK CHENEY YEARS.
Give it a rest, Frack.
Using the race card WILL NOT WORK in your Messiah's case.
We can NOT allow Barry four more years.
If so, then he'll finish off this nation ENTIRE.
No, Kannin and Candice,
No one is limiting your free speech. You can tell lies and face no censor. Just have to put up with justification of those lies. When your leaders tell some really big ones, just own up. Welfare to work, please the biggest yet. Kannin's lies about BP, come on. Are you so brain dead to belief that BP didn't lie, about output of the leakage. You are the people the the Koch Brothers are looking for. Corporations are looking out for the middle class and not the 1%. Even Barry Goldwater learned that these people were not represent the best interest this countries interest.
Kannin,
No one is stopping you from speaking. Just your imagination. You still post! Even though this is a liberal site. OMG!! It just that most educated posters think you are a tool. Please stop posting the usual stale old statements. You also post so many points that have been found to be lacking in truth, maybe you should be better informed.
Viewer_Ready,
You must be a tool! You spout the same tired response. Did you expect a recovery in less than 4 years? When this started well before Bush? This is the Republicans game since Reagan. Destroy the Middle Class, focus on the 1%, because the are the job creators. Well how has that worked for you? They are trying to make America into a third world economy. Lower standards on work condition, labor standard, local enviromental standards. This is the worst economy since the Great Depression. It took over 10 years to recover and a World War. Without a viable Middle Class this economy will not grow. Consumers drive this economy. The more the Middle Class has to spend, the more the economy grows. The top 1% do nothing to increase the economy. Large Corporations do not create jobs. They buy out smaller business and reduce the job pool. Corporations reduce the job pool and are what the original Tea Party fought against. The original multinational Corporation was the East Indian Trading Company. They were owned by the the crown and were give a 20% advantage over all other companies. Better know as the 1st multinational corporation. That is why the original Tea Party happened. It is a disgrace that today's Tea Party tries to use this progressive organization as a symbol of their organization. They were protesting the 1st multinational corporation and the Tea Party is representative of multinational corporation. See a problem?
So a week and dozens of campaign stops later, Obama gets to Louisiana. If this was Bush, all you on the left would be screaming like stuck pigs.
And no mention of Romney already visiting the area ahead of this jackass, who only went because Romney already did.
Pathetic.
just as President Obama followed Bush into office in order to clean up his mess, so did he have to follow Romney into Louisiana to clean up yet another mess (of ineptitude) created by yet another bumbling, stumbling, ignorant out-of-touch republican.
Romney to victims who had just lost their HOMEs and everything else: "go HOME and dial two-one-one for the information you need."
yeah...good job, Brownie-Romney...good job.
Actually,
President Obama coordinated efforts with all officials of the Gulf Region a week before Isaac ever hit the U.S.. He sent FEMA and its resources to the area in anticipation of the need for assistance.
As a result of wisdom and compassion, a tremendous tragedy was prevented. While no one could prevent the storm from hitting, there was immediate help available for all who were impacted.
So you see, the 'jackass' is smart and actually does his job. He doesn't wait for a crisis, then take a week trying to come up with a plan.
butterfly -
Then why did it take until 3 days after the storm for any aid to get in the area?
There were blue skies on Thursday.
just as President Obama followed Bush into office in order to clean up his mess, so did he have to follow Romney into Louisiana to clean up yet another mess (of ineptitude) created by yet another bumbling, stumbling, ignorant out-of-touch republican.
Romney to victims who had just lost their HOMEs and everything else: "go HOME and dial two-one-one for the information you need."
yeah...good job, Brownie-Romney...good job.
Barry Soetoro cleaning up a mess? You have to be kidding. The only thing this clown does is make messes. This dude as Mr. Fix-it is like Joe Biden as Mr. Orator.
Odumbodaprez....
Your hero Mittens was stupid enough to ask the Mayor of New Orleans "Where did all this water come from?" DUH....maybe from the HURRICANE??????
Democrats seem to have a penchant for getting things done. Republicans seem to
have a penchant for stopping Democrats from doing anything ~ even if nothing
gets done
Say What - Since you are the expert: What were the relative contributions from 1) Run off, 2) River flooding, 3) Storm surge, 4) Sewer back-up, 5) Rainfall?
"Where did all this water come from?" is a perfectly reasonable question from someone who actually understands the complexity of problems and how to solve them.
as if the Democrats wish to ignore how Obama has leads during times of disasters, he doesn't lead, he simply acts like a lawyer waiting to see who to sue, the worse thing is that BP may have given the settlement out but did the people who needed it, get it. there are still huge areas which have crude oil still oozing out if you put pressure on the surface, BP failed and so did Obama also you will see once again Obama sign the disaster relief as if that is the end of the disaster, but he doesn't have good oversight as no one actually sees any remedy the gulf coast is a disaster waiting to happen,
I too was quite disappointed with Baraks performance, after all that we heard about him (single-handily) taking out Bin Laden. I stood by my television, glued to the "split screen" images from CNN, as they "tried" to cover both breaking news stories, Issac and the RNC.
As the winds howled and the rains poured, I was sure there would be images of Barry, hanging from a helicopter, single-handily pulling flood victims from roof-tops.
Instead, only now after the storm has passed, we see images of our Dear Leader, with blue skies as a backdrop, telling victims "the checks are in the mail"...............................
There's just no pleasing people like you. all you do is set unrealistic expectations only to prod the target after the fact, if he doesn't do it you complain, if he does to it you simply call it a publicity stunt.
Do not waste your time trying to explain anything to Mr Potato Head....a box of rocks, namely Mitt Romney has more intellect, and Romney has NONE
James -
Yet that is what democrats seemed to think Bush should have done...
That is, when they weren't claiming that he 'blew up the levees'.
mruseurhead, i'm not even going to ask what you use YOURS for. :::sigh:::
Obama there isn't anything to fear the Republicans say I am good for nothing, but hey I still have ink in my pen, and checks so I will just sign this check, despite there is no money in the till, ha ha ha and then we will beg for Communist China to loan us another trillion, so we can re-build this disaster, so next year when it floods we will have to do the same thing over and over again, Obama an American success story, on the back of Americans working and paying for all the entitlement relief please give Obama more pens, and more checks, he will need them for the next 4 years,
Would just one of the leftist divots on this site explain how the US government is supposed to pay for Obama's agenda? Skip the nonsense response of "tax the rich." If you think the rich have no way of avoiding taxes, you are delusional. Enlighten me Swami.
Chanting Joe and O 2012 to make you feel good is OK. Actually understanding how their policies will be financed is something you might be well served by thinking about for a moment. Unless, of course, the answer is too frightening.
Ask Bush and Cheney how we are supposed to pay from THEIR mess before worrying about Obama, you moron!