President Obama's Four-Hour "Drive-By" Visit to New Orleans Irks Many, Jetting Off to San Francisco for Democratic Party Fundraiser Thursday Night

I am not sure who plans President Obama's schedules, but it is an insult for him to visit New Orleans for four hours and then hop on a plane and head to California for a Democratic Party fundraiser in San Francisco Thursday night. Never mind the fact that this is his first visit to the region since he ascended the presidency. If this is his attempt to fulfill a campaign promise to survey first-hand the city's recovery, then it warrants more than four hours. There is also widespread criticism that he is only visiting New Orleans, though the devastation from Hurricane Katrina stretched to Mississippi and parts of Alabama.

Obama will visit the Martin Luther King Charter School in the city's Lower 9th Ward, a neighborhood devastated by the floodwaters of Katrina after the city's levees were breached. The charter school was the first to be rebuilt following Katrina. On the second anniversary of the hurricane, former President George W. Bush visited the school and met with Louisiana education officials.

Obama will also hold a town hall meeting with members of the New Orleans community. The White House said that the trip demonstrates the president's "strong commitment to Gulf Coast rebuilding and recovery." Administration officials noted that since taking office in January, their measures to speed up federal aid have already freed up more than $1 billion toward public infrastructure for Louisiana. That may be true, but the people of the region deserve more than four hours of the president's time, especially since he will be going to California to yuk it up with the "big dogs." This is a horrible public relations error.


Don't get me wrong, the president deserves some plaudits for unblocking recovery funds and cutting the bureacractic red tape, but you can't appeal to the average resident of those affected cities by just popping in for four hours. It shows that like President George W. Bush, Obama just doesn't get the essence of the problems these residents continue to face --a sluggish recovery, the vanishing coastline and the economic degradation Katrina left behind, that have made the streets of those cities, especially New Orleans much more dangerous.

No-one wants to revisit the image of former President George W. Bush peering out a window of Air Force One, looking at the damage to the region. That's still fresh in the minds of Gulf Coast residents. That amounted to nothing more than a "glorified flyover," which seems to be exactly what President Obama is heading for -- a "glorified drive-by." He is squandering an awesome opportunity to show the people of the region that he gets it and understands completely what they are facing, especially since the health care reform debate and the economic quagmire has been hard to surmount. He is, essentially saying that a fundraising meet-and-greet is more important to him and warrants more of his time than to meet the people of the region.

The president was to be accompanied on the trip today by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The three Cabinet members have all made trips to the region already this year. In total, members of the president's Cabinet and senior administration officials have made 22 trips to Louisiana in 2009, but just five to Mississippi and four to Alabama.

I am not being overly critical of President Obama, but one has to wonder why both events were scheduled on the same day. The appearance is very questionable and shows a lack of empathy for the plight of the people in the Gulf Coast.