CNN now Swiftboating Ray Nagin...

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

...via Douglas Brinkley.

Edit-

In deference to the general consensus that Brinkley is not a hack, I'll edit to say I think he did a hack job. Perhaps I knew to little about the man's work and reacted too quickly to what looked to me like an attempt to divert blame for what has been allowed to happen to New Orleans from where it rightly belongs. It looked like Swiftboating to me. Sorry to have offended so many.

[Sugarcoated]

1. It's ironic you call Brinkley a hack

When he was the author of the John Kerry biogrophy who's version of events the swift boaters were challenging. Brinkley made tons of appearances to defend John Kerry. I find him to be honest and Nagin, evidence looks to me, was pathetic.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. While there may well be aspects of irony...

...to lay New Orleans' problems on Nagin rather than on BushCo and the federal non-response and subsequent virtual abandonment since (with the exception of a few photo ops) is misleading, dishonest, and I think, a hack job. This is not meant as a defense of Nagin, he may have made some mistakes that deserve scrutiny and public criticism.

[Sugarcoated]

10. Brinkley has layed into Bush plenty

but they were talking about Nagin and his re-election on CNN.

[benddem]

2. actually

Doug Brinkley is a noted historian. He's written some very highly regarded books. He is from NOLA. I don't watch TV and don't know what he is saying, but he is someone who doesn't deserve the "Swiftboat" moniker.

[BOSSHOG]

3. Beg to differ

but Douglas Brinkley is no hack and Ray Nagin is no Democrat. It would be so nice if ACORN would bus New Orleans residents who are now living in Atlanta and Houston to aid in the cities cleanup and recovery instead of just to vote.

[WiseButAngrySara]

4. What Brinkley has to say, I'll listen to. He lived in NOLA and (I think)

taught at Tulane U. A swiftboater he is not. Although Nagin could use some swiftboating, IMO.

[Beelzebud]

5. heh, it isn't 'swiftboating' if it's the truth, and Nagin certainly made

some mistakes.

That being said, the voters spoke, and he's still their mayor.

[YDogg]

6. Douglas Brinkley is not a hack. Sorry.

[karlrschneider]

7. Brinkley is a top notch historian and Nagin is no Democrat.

Well, he technically is...a DINO actually.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. Nagin is hard for me to understand.

I didn't understand Marion Barry in Washington either, another very popular black Mayor that behaved oddly sometimes. However, I don't live there, don't understand the local dynamics and I respect the people's right to vote in whoever they want.

[Maddy McCall]

11. Brinkley a hack? Hardly.

Nagin gives any of his critics plenty to work with. It doesn't have to be created.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

12. I've taken the opportunity to learn...

...more about Brinkley since starting this somewhat regretful thread, and I agree, he is not a hack. My bad. I should've done the homework on him first. I do think CNN was using him, perhaps unwittingly, to divert blame from BushCo and the Feds and place it on Nagin. Discussion of New Orleans' problems without bringing up BushCo's role in it seems very much suspect to me. Perhaps my criticism should be aimed at CNN and MSM in general on this subject.

[Skarbrowe]

13. Brinkley, IMO, was trying to point out that Nagin "froze" during the

disaster. Sorry, this is all I remember about the interview I saw a few weeks ago. I don't know enough about Nagin to blast him or praise him. Brinkley was saying that Nagin was just "not there" emotionally (not intellectually) to do things that were being asked of him during the few days immediately after Katrina devasted NO. He was in shock. Maybe some people who voted for him felt this made him more human and understandable, because the whole city, state and country happened to be in shock also. But, Brinkley appeared to be pointed out the fact that this might not be a good thing leadership wise. Everyone made mistakes before and after Katrina hit. Nagin included. This race was for Mayor of NO and that's where Brinkleys cricitisms were being directed on Nagin.

I don't know if Brinkley has any agenda in pointing out Nagin's faults during Katrina. I do take what he has said as being separate from the failings made by the state and federal governments. As usual in politics, Nagin probably won on that lesser of two evils platform.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

14. The criticism that Nagin...

...seemed to come undone or let his emotions get the better of him in the days immediately following Katrina may have some validity, but given the Feds non-response, and the fact that they even went so far as to prevent ordinary private citizens from delivering emergency supplies to the city, I can understand how he might have been at wits end. They not only didn't help, they prevented others from doing so. To me, that's criminal, and what lead to so many unnecessary deaths, and should be treated by media as the real story behind Katrina, not Nagin's mistakes.

[Skarbrowe]

17. Sorry, I got back to this late. I do agree with what you said also. nt

[UTUSN]

15. Sorry, but NAGIN is DiNO and thanked Shrub & identified with Shrub

as "(we)the two most villified men in America." He ain't no Dem for me.

***********QUOTE**********

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagin

Before his election, Nagin was a member of the Republican Party and had little political experience; he was a vice president and general manager at Cox Communications, a cable communications company and subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. Nagin did give contributions periodically to candidates, namely President George W. Bush and former Republican U.S. Representative Billy Tauzin in 1999 and 2000, as well as to Democratic U.S. Senators John Breaux and J. Bennett Johnston earlier in the decade.

Days before filing for the New Orleans Mayoral race in February 2002, Nagin switched his party registration to the Democratic Party. Shortly before the primary election, an endorsement praising Nagin as a reformer by Gambit Magazine gave him crucial momentum that would carry through for the primary election and runoff. In the first round of the crowded mayoral election in February 2002, Nagin received first place with 29% of the vote, against such opponents as Police Chief Richard Pennington, State Senator Paulette Irons, City Councilman Troy Carter and others. In the runoff with Pennington in May 2002, Nagin won with 59% of the vote. His campaign was largely self-financed.

Shortly after taking office, Nagin launched an anti-corruption campaign within city government, which included crackdowns on the city's Taxicab Bureau and Utilities Department. Nagin also made a controversial endorsement of current Republican U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal in the 2003 Louisiana Gubernatorial Runoff over current Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco, and only reluctantly endorsed U.S. Senator John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential race.

Nagin received a B.S. degree in accounting from Tuskegee University in 1978 and an M.B.A. degree from Tulane University in 1994. He and his wife, Seletha Smith Nagin, have three children: Jeremy, Jarin, and Tianna.

*************UNQUOTE**********

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

16. This thread hasn't been about celebrating Nagin...

...I was basically taking exception to what I perceived as his being made the scapegoat. I don't doubt that Nagin made some mistakes, and maybe his reelection as mayor is a perfectly proper time for media to spotlight them, but I don't hear them being nearly tough enough on BushCo for their horrible mishandling of the Katrina tragedy.