"So everyone is talking about the Vanity Fair article in which Bush aides say that Katrina is what did him in. I don’t think that’s entirely true, but what I’d like to focus on is why Katrina was such a problem for Bush." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

Katrina was the final nail in the coffin, but he'd been dying long before that. How he won re-election is still mind boggling to me. - Eric P

Thinking back to 2005 actually... wasn't that the year of Terri Shiavo, Cindy Sheehan, and his failed social security privatization scheme, all of which happened before Katrina? And that photo is hardly even *bad* - the self inflicted gunshot was the McCain birthday cake photo, playing guitar, and the Heckuva Job soundbite, coupled with images of a boondoggled government response. - Eric P

I think Katrina showed that the US is vulnerable and that Bush was not a particularly strong leader. He was touted as being so good after 9/11, but I don't know what any other leader would have done. To me he did a satisfactory job and I think when Katrina hit, we were hoping for more. Satisfactory doesn't cut it when it's that bad. - JoEllen

Katrina really showed the US and the world all the things we've swept under our collective bed and how horrible the poverty, lack of education, lack of resources is for a good portion of the population. Especially after the tsunami and the 3rd world conditions it created, we didn't look much better. - JoEllen

I agree with Krugman. All of the other things could have been shoveled off on other people or other government entities. Katrina struck at the very heart of Bush's message from 2001 onward: vote for me, because otherwise you will die. The storm, as Keith Olbermann once put beautifully, showed the American people that George W. Bush couldn't protect them from standing water. - Steven Perez