Tours les présidents sont confrontés à cette réalité... À lire en entier. L'auteur, Julian E. Zelizer, est un historien.
"As Hurricane Irene gathered force, moving its way up toward the populated areas of the East Coast, politicians in both parties scrambled to prepare. President Obama cut short his vacation on Martha's Vineyard to return to Washington. Governors and mayors in all the affected states issued warnings, with mandatory and voluntary evacuations, and state officials mobilized.
Every politician, red and blue, realized the stakes involved. The failure to prepare and respond effectively to this disaster could be politically devastating to the standing of any politician. The failure to clean up the damage from the hurricane in the next few days, swiftly and effectively, could undercut any political future.
Some presidents have been very effective at handling natural disasters. One of the famous cases took place with Hurricane Betsy in Louisiana in September 1965. Democratic Sen. Russell Long called the president to urge him to visit. When Lyndon Johnson hesitated because of his busy schedule, the canny Long said: "If you go there right now, Mr. President, they couldn't beat you if Eisenhower ran!"
Johnson, motivated by a mix of humanitarian and political incentives, went right away. He traveled the streets, talking to residents and inspecting the damage. Johnson leaned on Robert Phillips from the Office of Emergency Planning to take quick action and to do what was necessary to provide relief.
During one phone conversation, with Long on the line, he said: "Now, in times of distress, it's necessary that all the members of the family get together and lay aside any individual problems they have or any personal grievances and try to take care of the sick mother, and we've got a sick mother on our hands. And as I said the other night when I was there, we've got to cut out all the red tape. We've got to work around the clock. We've got to ignore hours."
Relief arrived, and Congress also passed the Flood Control Act of 1965, which helped to rebuild the area."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/27/zelizer.natural.disaster.politics/index.html?hpt=po_t2
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