Is God Giving George W. Bush a Second Chance?

A Class 5 monster is currently bearing down on the Texican coast -- check out this satellite image loop of Hurricane Rita from the NOAA website.

This time, Bush isn't off playing guitar. He seems to be on top of things right now. Sure, his "home state" is directly threatened, but I'm certain he and Karl see Hurricane Rita as their big chance to redeem the Bush Administration in the eyes of the world.

This time, the Federal Government has "rushed hundreds of truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals to the Gulf Coast and put rescue and medical teams on standby." And this time, enough of a military presence has been put in place for a proper response. I just read this amazing factoid on CNN:

319,000 National Guard troops are available to respond to Rita should the need arise. In comparison, 10,000 National Guard troops were dispatched across the Gulf Coast 3 days before Katrina's landfall.

Could this new hurricane save Bush's presidency? When I first heard today that Rita was heading toward the Gulf Coast after strengthening to a Category 5, that was the first thought that entered my head -- I know, that's a cold thing to think, but it is the truth. The reason I think that way is because I would consider a reinvigorated Bush presidency to present a much greater threat to this nation than pretty much anything else.

My first impression was that a competent response to Rita would perhaps improve Bush's numbers in the short term. But as I thought about it, I reached the conclusion that Hurricane Rita probably will do little if anything to improve the president's image.

First of all, most people will expect Bush to do a better job this time around. After all, the job of government is to respond to these type of events, and there is no way Bush could do a worse job with this new hurricane. In fact, an effective Federal reaction to Rita will simply remind Americans just how incompetent Bush's response to Katrina was.

Second, unless some sort of price freeze is put on gasoline (which will not happen given Bush's connections to the oil industry), gas prices will go through the roof as a result of Rita, perhaps as high as $5 a gallon. This is because refineries in the area of Rita's projected landfall -- and there are a lot of them -- are being closed down as we speak, and will undoubtedly remain closed for quite a while, particularly if this storm doesn't weaken substantially before it reaches land. Fair or not, sitting presidents always get the blame for higher gas prices, especially if they stay high for an appreciable amount of time.

Finally, no matter what Rita does, folks are going to have a hard time getting the images of the Katrina Aftermath out of their heads, particularly the scenes of bodies floating in New Orleans. We've had devastating hurricanes before -- in fact, Florida had four of them last season alone. But how many images from those Florida hurricanes are seared into your brain?