Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, September 1st, 2005. This incident actually took place on September 2nd 2005, but this is all in the

aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster that struck the Gulf Coast.

President George W Bush is finally on the ground to visit

disaster relief efforts.

Compounding the natural disaster of the massive hurricane that hit the region a few days earlier was a

a political and managerial disaster. There was a lack of preparedness, a lack of

coordination. What many felt was a lack of empathy and urgency on the part of the Bush administration and

other officials. And perhaps nothing captured that more than a phrase uttered by Bush to

FEMA Director Michael Brown while visiting it's kind of like a

staging facility where they're getting ready to do disaster response in front of many

many cameras and press Bush turned to Brown and said quote Brownie you're doing a heck of a job

no one thought Brownie was doing a heck of a job let's's just say that plainly, but nevertheless Bush says that and it becomes

kind of a disastrous phrase amidst a disastrous response. So here to discuss all of that are

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there.

Hello Jody. Hey there. Well one thing I'll just say is in my head it's always been heck of a job brownie and now I'm learning that it's and that's probably because like that maybe is what like SNL did it or something but actually it was brownie you're doing a heck of a job I don't think it really matters

but just an interesting today but I wonder I wonder if we could talk about it as like

this snapshot moment because you know I think many of our listeners will remember

the aftermath of Katrina but I think when you of our listeners will remember the aftermath of Katrina, but I think when you remember it is in some ways as this sort of snapshot of images and you know you have the images of the storm you have the images of the superdome you have the images of the super dome you have the image of Bush looking out the plane window right Bush

Bush didn't go to the ground he just flew over it on his way back from the west coast and you have this picture of Bush looking out the window and that was his initial response was to look at it from afar.

You have Kiney on TV saying George Bush doesn't care about black people.

...