Whatever is beyond the shark, Nagin has jumped it, too.

Just about a year ago, upon Mayor Nagin’s reelection, I wrote:

C. Ray took it by about 5,000 votes and I for one am glad. With as much federal money as will be flowing through New Orleans, we need someone with a solid anti-corruption record, not one of the Cajun Kennedys, about whom the kindest thing I can say is, “Nothing proved.”

I defended Nagin.

The prevailing view seems to be that “politics as usual” won out, when in fact the exact opposite is true. Bloggers that I read regularly and respect have it completely wrong on this issue, including Paul at Powerline, and Michelle Malkin.

Over at Captain’s Quarters, Captain Ed got it pretty much on the mark. Paul from Wizbang, another NOLA blogger, predicted Nagin’s win and explains why whites support Nagin.

Now it is a year later, and Nagin gave his first “state of the city” address, transcribed by some grammar and punctuation-challenged person and located here. Here’s the response from the left, and here’s the response from the right. There’s a bit of truth in both, and quite a bit of lunacy.

The view from the left includes this gem: “Weeks after Katrina, Bush told us that he would do whatever it takes to bring back New Orleans. He has not done so. Instead, he has separated wind from flood. He has set up a housing program and a recovery that needs a recovery.” While I believe we’re entitled, due to the federal malfeasance that led to the levee breaks, to a fair chunk of change to fix the damage (and I don’t feel a bit bad about using the word “entitled” for a number of reasons - we haven’t received a nickel in offshore royalties since the Eisenhower administration while other states have received 50%, for example) I have to draw the line at this sort of nonsense. New Orleans is not entitled to federal funding to repair wind damage. I repeat: NEW ORLEANS IS NOT ENTITLED TO FEDERAL FUNDING TO REPAIR WIND DAMAGE. Good grief. This is exactly why half the country is so hostile toward us. The Corps of Engineers flooded 80% of the city, and they’ve admitted it repeatedly, after it was proved and they could no longer deny it. Fine; you break it, you bought it, but wind damage is an entirely separate issue. While I would love for someone to drop nearly $20k in my lap to cover my family’s losses, that kind of reimbursement is between me and my insurance company. Some things were covered, others weren’t. That’s the way it goes. It is not the responsibility of the rest of the country to fix wind damage to my house.

And on the flip side, the right commentator says this: “Throughout his address, Nagin continued to point fingers at everyone else and accept blame for none of the problems post Katrina. In fact, at the end of the speech, when Nagin abandoned his script, he said that “it’s not our fault” that the levees failed, that the water system is broken, that the road home plan is a mess and that “we were stranded and left.” Of course in the Mayor’s view, it is never his fault; everyone else is to blame for everything. Nagin only takes credit for successes.” You know what? It’s NOT our fault that the levees broke. You can’t get much more clear than this: “As elected officials have said many times, the federal government is responsible for this hurricane damage because of the failure of the levee system.” And the Road Home fiasco is, in fact, Blanco’s fault. Governor Kathleen Blanco is responsible for that failed and soon-to-be-bankrupt program. And it’s going bankrupt because they’ve been giving out money to people for wind damage, instead of restricting it to water damage as was originally intended. So now either American taxpayers are going to be stuck for it, or local homeowners who are not at fault will. Way to go, Governor!

This doesn’t, of course, relieve Nagin of the long, long list of things that ARE his fault. Start with crime and go from there; the list of things that Nagin could do something about… illegal aliens… illegal dumping… clogged ERs… the water system has so little pressure that high rise buildings regularly have problems with it… potholes… all things that Nagin, at the local level, could and should do something about. He has not.

Captain Ed wrote this a year ago:

Nagin has his second chance. Hopefully he will make the best of it and use his skills at reform and enterprise to make New Orleans ascendant and more hurricane-resistant than ever before. Voters will certainly not forgive another bout of incompetence.

No, we won’t. He had his chance, and blew it. The buzz phrase on local talk radio yesterday was that those of us who have come back to stay are “pioneers.” Whatever. This is home and I love it, but I have lived in many other places and found that I could be perfectly happy there. And a lot of us are starting to believe it might be a pretty good idea. We’re getting tired of wasting away in Chocolateville…
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