From theTimes Picayune:
McClellan also recounts another “clinker,” when Bush singled out
Michael Brown, the beleaguered head of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, with the infamous, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”“Even Brown looked embarrassed and no wonder; most Americans had
already concluded that the FEMA director was in over his head,” said
McClellan, who adds that it helped cement an image that Bush is overly
loyal even after poor performance. (my emphasis)
I don’t know if that last bit of analysis by McClellan is generally true of Bush though perhaps Scottie himself may be an example of such. But I don’t believe Americans watching that moment were thinking of Bush as loyalist. Rather it cemented an image that Bush didn’t know WTF was going on. That’s a “clinker”? And remember the remark came just minutes after theTrent Lott’s porch remark. That one further cemented the image of Bush as tone deaf and uncaring to the death and suffering occurring. Taken together they were very damaging. Because even though Bush was no longer vacationing, nor peering out of a plane window but was at last on the ground, at least Alabama ground, he still didn’tget it…what any American watching their TV’s for days previous got…the horror of it all.
The TP continues:
Later, McClellan writes, Bush told staff he had little choice but to
praise Brown. “He was standing right there and I was trying to pump up
everybody’s morale,” McClellan quotes the president’s explanation to
aides. (my emphasis)
Aaack. Whatever…