Bush tours California fire zones
ESCONDIDO, Calif. – With an assist from a governor with a taste for populism, President Bush spent four hours Thursday touring fire-ravaged San Diego and trying to show that he and his administration feel the pain of America’s latest natural disaster victims.
Bush’s tour of a torched Rancho Bernardo neighborhood and a hand-shaking, back-slapping encounter with soot-stained firefighters came barely two years after he was harshly criticized for his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
The president deflected a question about the Katrina-San Diego comparison, saying, “I’m thinking about people whose lives are turned upside down. The experts can try to figure out whether the response was appropriate or not.”
He added, “There is all kinds of time for history to compare this response to that response.”
Was Katrina on his mind? How could it not be, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who stood behind Bush while he made some brief remarks at Kit Carson City Park in Escondido, where 2,000 firefighters were camped out after five days on the front lines.
“Katrina is still on everybody’s minds,” Feinstein said in an interview with the Sacramento Bee.
If Bush was facing any kind of a public relations issue Thursday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has spent the better part of the week meeting with victims, touring the fire zone and working to improve the assistance effort, did his best to ensure that the president received a measure of credit for showing up.
“It was very important for the president to come out here,” Schwarzenegger said in an interview while touring the evacuation center at Escondido High School. “It was very important that he gave us the emergency declaration and the natural disaster declaration – that to us was the most important thing.”
The governor also lauded the president for acknowledging the firefighters, hundreds of whom soaked in Bush’s visit to the park and welcomed him with tears.
“That was great,” said Andy Lawlor, a firefighter from the San Miguel Fire District in San Diego County after listening to Bush speak and having his picture taken with the president. “It’s a huge morale booster for everybody here.”