Nobel Peace Prize winner now increases tension in Louisiana

By Michelle Malkin  •  October 15, 2009 11:24 AM

It’s been quite a week on the homefront for the world’s noblest Nobel Peace laureate.

The world may have “less tension” as a result of Obama’s accomplishments — er, rather, his aspirations. But here in the good old USA, tensions are rising.

Just to review:

President Obama disses San Francisco.

First Lady Michelle Obama disses South Carolina.

And now, the White House’s decision to flit through the Hurricane Katrina recovery area on a hasty little trip has upset residents:

Slightly more than four years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, President Obama is traveling to New Orleans today to fulfill a campaign promise to survey first-hand the city’s recovery.

…But before the president even steps foot on the ground in Louisiana, critics in the region have taken aim at the administration on several fronts: They fault him for waiting nine months before going to New Orleans, staying for only four hours and not going to any of the other states affected by the devastating 2005 storm, such as Mississippi and Alabama.

Tommy Longo, the mayor of Waveland, Miss., a town that was leveled by Katrina, said that Obama was “missing the Ground Zero of Katrina.”

“We haven’t whined. My citizens get up every day and they go to work, rebuilding their city from under the ground up, and it would mean a lot to them if they knew that they were on his mind,” Longo said of the president. “It would mean a lot to everyone if he actually put his feet on the ground here in Waveland.”

Even Louisiana officials have voiced displeasure with the trip and want more from the president.

“I think the trip could have been longer,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., in a television interview Wednesday. “But I want to say that people are not angry. If they’re anything, they’re just a little disappointed and frustrated, but understanding that the president has a lot on his plate.

Yeah. Like fund-raising in California while ducking his base.

Takeaway quote:

“I fear Obama is mismanaging the political theater of Katrina,” Lawrence Powell of Tulane University told ABC News.

Takeaway quote II:

“Why squander the political capital he has deservedly been garnering from previous good deeds by doing a “drive by” appearance in New Orleans, capped off with a fundraising meet-and-greet in San Francisco later that evening?” asked Powell, who said he voted for Obama. “It just doesn’t play well.”

***

Flashback June 2007:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Tuesday that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a “quiet riot” among blacks that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did 15 years ago.

The first-term Illinois senator said that with black people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast still displaced 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, frustration and resentments are building explosively as they did before the 1992 riots.

“This administration was colorblind in its incompetence,” Obama said at a conference of black clergy. “But the poverty and the hopelessness was there long before the hurricane.

“All the hurricane did was to pull the curtain back for all the world to see,” he said.

Obama’s criticism of Bush prompted ovation after ovation from the nearly 8,000 people gathered in Hampton University’s Convocation Center, particularly when he denounced the Iraq war and noted that he had opposed it from the outset.

Repeatedly, he referred to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers of assault charges in the 1991 beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, after a high speed chase. Fifty-five people died and 2,000 were injured in several days of riots in the city’s black neighborhoods.

“Those ‘quiet riots’ that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths,” Obama said. “They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better.”

…Repeatedly, with evangelical zeal, he raised issues that roused the crowd: increasing the minimum wage and teacher pay, funding for public schools and college financial aid for the poor, ending predatory lending and expediting the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Mississippi coast.

He introduced his own pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago’s Trinity United as “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.” He credited Wright with introducing him to Christ, and peppered his speech with scriptural references, at one point invoking the opening lines of the Lord’s Prayer.

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  1. #1
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:36 am, rightisright said:

    If they’re anything, they’re just a little disappointed and frustrated, but understanding that the president has a lot on his plate

    .

    he’s been too busy doing what he does best…campaign. someone should tell him the race is over now, he won…it’s time to work at the job he campaigned for.

  2. #2
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:37 am, SomeOtherSteve said:

    Isn’t it the Democrats strategy to appear to unite people? Of course, to unite them, you have to divide them, first. That way you can save the day.

    The Democrats are also back to milking class warfare with Wall Street. Funny, didn’t the majority of Democrats in Congress vote to give Wall Street the money in the first place?

  3. #3
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:39 am, spaceycakes said:

    I heard he doesn’t like chocolate.

  4. #4
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:40 am, DBNinKY said:

    “Mismanaging political theater” is something the Obama administration never can be accused of – not as long as Rahm is controlling things!

  5. #5
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:41 am, AlabamaMama said:

    “We haven’t whined. My citizens get up every day and they go to work, rebuilding their city from under the ground up

    Which is why Obama isn’t stopping by. Self-starting, self-sufficient citizens capable of solving their own problems aren’t as valuable to his agenda as the ones who line up, hands out, whining, “gimme.”

  6. #6
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:41 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    at one point invoking the opening lines of the Lord’s Prayer.

    Obama: I..er..um…forget the rest.

  7. #7
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:43 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:39 am, spaceycakes said:
    I heard he doesn’t like chocolate.

    Who needs the Chocolate City when you have better blues clubs in the Windy City.

  8. #8
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:44 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    “We haven’t whined. My citizens get up every day and they go to work, rebuilding their city from under the ground up

    Obama: Suckas!

  9. #9
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:45 am, spaceycakes said:

    He’s only there for a few hours because that’s how long the ‘vampire’ tour takes.

  10. #10
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:45 am, b-cat said:

    We haven’t whined.

    Au contraire.

    “I think the trip could have been longer,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., in a television interview Wednesday. “But I want to say that people are not angry.

    People aren’t angry? Then what the heck was Obama talking about?

    “Those ‘quiet riots’ that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths,” Obama said. “They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better.”

    Okay, he didn’t say specifically they’re angry.

    “But I want to say that people are not angry. If they’re anything, they’re just a little disappointed and frustrated, but understanding that the president has a lot on his plate.”

    A courtesy that you never extended to the previous President, Sen. Landrieu.

  11. #11
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:49 am, RedDog said:

    “Why squander the political capital he has deservedly been garnering from previous good deeds… asked Powell, who said he voted for Obama. “It just doesn’t play well.”

    You dopes voted for a little salesman in a big suit. So you thought you were getting a sugar daddy with both hands in the people’s cookie jar? Serves you right. You got a power hungry ego maniac instead and screwed the rest of us in the bargain.

  12. #12
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:51 am, tre said:

    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:45 am, spaceycakes said:
    He’s only there for a few hours because that’s how long the ‘vampire’ tour takes.

    “Poli” means “many”, and “Tics” are “blood-sucking parasites.”

  13. #13
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:53 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    asked Powell, who said he voted for Obama. “It just doesn’t play well.”

    Clamity Jane: “Welcome to the f@#$%^g club of most of us!”

  14. #14
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:57 am, mojack420 said:

    He doesn’t have time to waist on these peasants , he has a world to save and a country to transform .

    Anyone who dares question the chosen one is really just a racist.

  15. #15
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:57 am, Lindsay said:

    Uh oh. Another shot in Obama’s perfect reign. Any guesses how quickly he will now visit the Mississippi Gulf Coast?

    For once the media and Obama Administration can say “Bush did it” and be telling the truth; as George W. Bush, as President, visited the devastated Mississippi Gulf Coast, by March of 2007, fourteen times.

    A reminder: New Orleans was flooded due to broken levees in a broken Democratic state and city. Yet the tourism was able to rekindle as the French Quarter withstood the flooding. The Mississippi Gulf Coast, its character,and its history were leveled and washed away, yet the media and the nation focused on New Orleans and Nagin.

  16. #16
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:58 am, Just A Grunt said:

    His relevance is disappearing faster then a “Obama for Prez” bumper sticker. And around here those things, which popped up like dandelions in the spring, are officially on the endangered species list.

  17. #17
    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:59 am, spaceycakes said:

    I’ve said from the beginning that Pass Christian and Biloxi, MS were hit much harder than anything in NO. It’s just all about the mess that they themselves created. Sort of like the woman prentending to buy clothing for everyone in Columbus, OH…

  18. #18
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:01 pm, BOB said:

    Interesting Obama archive on a taboo subject here.

    It’s OK if you take a look:

    http://web.archive.org/web/20040627142700/eastandard.net/headlines/news26060403.htm

  19. #19
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:02 pm, JHSII said:

    Personally I expect nothing less from The Once. He never accomplished anything as a “community organizer”. He never accomplished anything when he was in the Senate. And now he’s making Jimmy Carter look good as “president”.

  20. #20
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm, b-cat said:

    New Orleans was devastated by its geography. It is a large city, in a swamp, that sits below sea level. It is a seaport that is flanked on one side by the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchatrain on the other.

    Everyone knew someday a disaster would come. Kind of like San Francisco and the San Andreas Fault.

  21. #21
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:07 pm, SomeOtherSteve said:

    Oops, I had a bad link. Here is the right one.

  22. #22
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:08 pm, denver republican said:

    Where’s Kanye West telling us how much the President hates black people?

  23. #23
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm, spaceycakes said:

    Where’s Kanye West

    He’s planning on showing up the same time as the Prez, pulling the microphone from him & shouting about how much more Beyonce’s house was devastated by the hurricane.

  24. #24
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:17 pm, RTater said:
  25. #25
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:20 pm, b-cat said:

    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:17 pm,

    RTater said:
    These three Louisianans are scum.

    I gotta disagree. I have family and friends there.

    Lived there myself for awhile and couldn’t ask for better friends and neighbors. Thinking about a company sponsored transfer.

  26. #26
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:26 pm, J S Ragman said:

    They fault him for waiting nine months before going to New Orleans, staying for only four hours and not going to any of the other states affected by the devastating 2005 storm, such as Mississippi and Alabama.

    Just out of curiosity, which way did the gulf coast states vote in 2008?

    Oh, that’s right, LA, MS, TX and AL all went to McCain. Silly me.

  27. #27
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:30 pm, davidjamesduprey said:

    On October 15th, 2009 at 11:36 am, rightisright said:

    If they’re anything, they’re just a little disappointed and frustrated, but understanding that the president has a lot on his plate

    .

    he’s been too busy doing what he does best…campaign. someone should tell him the race is over now, he won…it’s time to work at the job he campaigned for.

    I disagree. He is campaigning for an election! He’s campaigning now for his re-election bid in 2012 and for the re-election of the Democrat Majority in the House and Senate in 2010.

    I wonder when he’s planning on going t New Jersey to try to save John Corzine’s Governorship.

  28. #28
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:31 pm, RTater said:

    Oops. Stupid fat fingers.

    These three Louisianans are scum.

    Jindal 2012.

  29. #29
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:34 pm, right_on said:

    “I think the trip could have been longer,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., in a television interview Wednesday. “But I want to say that people are not angry. If they’re anything, they’re just a little disappointed and frustrated, but understanding that the president has a lot on his plate.

    If the residents really want the Pariah in Chief to come down for a “nice” visit, perhaps one of the myriad of clean Democrat state politicians could announce a discovery of several billion newly found” Katrina recovery dollars.

    You see, planting that seed will activate the White House Greed Gremlin causing a sudden and surprisingly substantial loss, of that newly found cash, following a “careful audit.” “The State Senator mis-spoke,” White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs explained, as he grinned ear to ear!

    Ignore completely the coincidental nature of the announcement that an unprecidented number of “small” donations for the Re-elect Obama Campaign has poured in….resulting in a “I’m so humbled” speech, where Mr. Noble Nobel basks in the adoration of citizens of the Chocolate City.

  30. #30
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:41 pm, Ron said:

    So, George W. Bush spent more time in New Orleans than Barack Obama, and probably did more for recovery. Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm.

  31. #31
    On October 15th, 2009 at 12:48 pm, RetFireman said:

    You know, there is such a strong undertone of racism in these questions as to why he spent less time than Bush in dealing with the situation he was overly critical of the Bush Administration for.

    After all…we now realize Bush knew in advamce that a hurricane would happen, as well he allowed that hurricane to take out only blacks, their homes, neighborhoods and businesses and ignored them as things became so bad in those first 12 hours that people had little choice but to resort to cannibalism. And it was all because Bush’s grandaddy was a war profiteer and instilled in his family a deep seeded hatred of blacks.

    This was no accident and was planned decades ago, and Bush saw it as a way to avenge his brother who once had to share a classroom with someone who was black.

    Fortunately all those that the Left considered to be the world’s stupidest humans somehow vaporized off the planet amd were replaced by highly advanced and intelligent people who rejected the evil of the previous 8 years and elected Obama, history’s greatest and most intelligent person, the Supreme Being…The Fifth Element who, by his mere presence, has brought peace, unity and fellowship to the planet.

    Anyone who still remains adhered to the past, who still is left wanting and in need simply should stop asking questions, stop doubting and accept him and only then will the find true peace, happiness and lose their dependence on such things as food, shelter, income that those evil Capitalists brainwashed them into believing they needed,

  32. #32
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:07 pm, Pat said:

    …Repeatedly, with evangelical zeal, he raised issues that roused the crowd:…

    “Free Government Cheese”!

  33. #33
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:10 pm, SomeOtherSteve said:

    “Free Government Cheese”!

    What is Government Cheese in jail for?

  34. #34
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:22 pm, cicerokid said:

    If they’re anything, they’re just a little disappointed and frustrated, but understanding that the president has a lot on his plate

    “Can’t I just eat my waffle?”

  35. #35
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:31 pm, Flyoverman said:

    My citizens get up every day and they go to work, rebuilding their city from under the ground up, and it would mean a lot to them if they knew that they were on his mind,” Longo said of the president.

    Oh sure, he cares. The 4th Great Lie.

    If they’re anything, they’re just a little disappointed and frustrated, but understanding that the president has a lot on his plate.

    The contents of his plate is a self-inflicted wound.

  36. #36
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:40 pm, MarcoPolo said:

    How long are they going to play the Katrina card?

  37. #37
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm, SomeOtherSteve said:

    How long are they going to play the Katrina card?

    Until they stop getting money & press from doing it.

  38. #38
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm, Hangfire said:

    The President has a lot of irons in the fire, but has yet to brand a single steer.

  39. #39
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:49 pm, right_on said:

    My citizens get up every day and they go to work, rebuilding their city from under the ground up,

    [Aside:Perhaps that speech should have started out, "Some of my citizens"...otherwise, people might get the impression that everyone there is pulling their own weight, and the former welfare recipients have found gainful employment. :) ]

    And how’s that rebuilding going? I’ll bet they’ve made more progress rebuilding from the wide spread natural disaster know as Katrina, than have the good people (and of course, investors) have in New York which suffered from a man-made disaster (which happened 4 years before Katrina).

    Interesting too, that some of the melted steel from the TT’s has been resmelted, and used to construct the U.S.S. New York…and yet, NOTHING has been achieved in NYC…accept ongoing bickering over whose idea is best,,,

  40. #40
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:50 pm, cicerokid said:

    How long are they going to play the Katrina card?

    New Orleans reconstruction will never be completed. Just like race relations and slavery issues, Katrina is just what the Black Liberation Theologian ordered.

  41. #41
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm, bouncingbeagles said:

    Wonder if he is going to make a call at ACORN/SEIU headquarters there. Probably not since he now no longer avows who ACORN is.

  42. #42
    On October 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm, Dexter Alarius said:

    I still think they should have trucked all the debris from the gulf coast and filled in NoLa to bring it above sea level. They’re just setting themselves up for another Katrina, and another…

  43. #43
    On October 15th, 2009 at 2:12 pm, NJ-Aviator said:

    They fault him for waiting nine months before going to New Orleans

    Ya know… that’s a valid point. For a candidate that excoriated G.W. Bush on his handling of Katrina you’d thing that a visit to New Orleans would come before….

    A visit to Copenhagen…

    A joy ride around the Statue or Liberty…

    A date with his wife to NYC…

    A trip to Mexico

    A trip to Ghana

    A trip to a summit in the Caribbean

    A trip to Europe to suck up more over there

    A trip to Russia to hand over our pride

    Yes, he’s been to at least 16 countries so far…. but just didn’t have time for New Orleans.

    Where is the Left’s Outrage?

  44. #44
    On October 15th, 2009 at 3:24 pm, Elm Creek Smith said:

    This just in from the New York Athletic Club:

    This year’s Heisman Trophy has been awarded to President Barack Hussein Obama since he watched a college footbal game on television.

    Hope is not a plan; not all change is good. WE are the civilian national security force! Hell, if I’d have known that the only requirement to win the Nobel Peace Prize was not to be George W. Bush, I’d have nominated myself. The resistance is here; the resistance is now! RESIST!!!!!

    ECS

  45. #45
    On October 15th, 2009 at 5:24 pm, thetoysurgeon said:

    Hitler was a good orator too.

  46. #46
    On October 15th, 2009 at 7:27 pm, TigerLady said:

    I think Michelle’s comment on Hannity last night was appropriate. She called The Won “the whiner in chief”. I like it. I’m going to use it. But I will abbreviate it WIC.

    The WIC needs to grow a pair, quit whining and get to work. Frankly, I’m tired of his whirlwind tour of the world on my tax dollar.

  47. #47
    On October 15th, 2009 at 8:11 pm, drjohn said:
  48. #48
    On October 15th, 2009 at 8:57 pm, vcferlita said:

    and it would mean a lot to them if they knew that they were on his mind,

    The only thing on Obama’s mind is himself.

  49. #49
    On October 16th, 2009 at 3:30 am, Papa Louie said:

    “Alfred Nobel wrote that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year,” Jagland said. “Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?”

    Who indeed! But even if you did think President Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for some vague good intention he expressed in one of his speeches, you can’t possibly explain what candidate Obama did to foster peace in the previous year before he had even become president.

  50. #50
    On October 16th, 2009 at 8:57 am, GraniteMan said:

    Yeah. Like fund-raising in California while ducking his base.

    When they are in the tank for you can walk on’em and no complaints. The base he went to dinner with that night and had much fun. San Fran, you know, doesn’t cling to God and their guns.

  51. #51
    On October 16th, 2009 at 9:05 am, jangar said:

    Sometimes I think the black community yearns for an opportunity to riot, and Obama, Jackson and Sharpton will be right there to write the table of contents for how to war with their fellow man.

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