<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2722" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4><EM>NY Times</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV class=kicker><STRONG>Editorial</STRONG></DIV><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0"
type=" ">
<H1>Waiting for a Leader</H1>
<DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>Published: September 1, 2005</DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp><FONT size=4>
<P>George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday,
especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of
consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the
president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a
quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of
pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He
advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned,
and promised that everything would work out in the end.</P>
<P>We will, of course, endure, and the city of New Orleans must come back. But
looking at the pictures on television yesterday of a place abandoned to the
forces of flood, fire and looting, it was hard not to wonder exactly how that is
going to come to pass. Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees
need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued
from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and
throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline
will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control at a moment
when television has been showing long lines at some pumps and spot prices
approaching $4 a gallon have been reported.</P>
<P>Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an
orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel
sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed
casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of
the current crisis.</P>
<P>While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate needs, the
nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so inadequate.
Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have fulminated
about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city, which is below sea
level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands
that could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it
wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of
the gaping holes in the area's flood protection? </P>
<P>It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced,
America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no
longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming
may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration
won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem
minimal.</P></NYT_TEXT></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>