i never thought i'd be saying this

I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Repbulican. I didn't vote for Kerry nor did I vote for Bush. Some of you know this already, some of you don't. Personally, I've not been a Bush supporter since before his first term. I've disagreed with most of his politics and the politics of the republican party in general. I don't find much to agree with from the democrats either. Months ago I joked about being disaffected, which is how I see myself at least in terms of politics. I just think we can and need to do better across the board.

Today however, the President I didn't vote for did an honorable thing, something I don't think he needed to do but am glad he did. Here's what he said...

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

"I want to know what went right and what went wrong, I want to know how to better cooperate with state and local government, to be able to answer that very question that you asked: Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm?"

The President isn't to blame for the storm, he isn't to blame for the response, though it definitely could have been better (at the state and local as well as the federal level), in my opinion. But he is the head of the administration under whose watch these things took place and given that fact, I believe leadership requires him to acknowledge that the "buck stops here." I'm glad he said what he said. I don't think I'll be joining the Republican party any time soon though, so my conservative friends can forget about that.

And for my liberal friends... I think you ought to give some credit here. By all means keep up your dissent, but our President's words today need to be acknowledged for what they are. This was the right thing to do. Don't be like Brian Unger (who I usually enjoy very much) and NPR, who today are the victims of remarkably poor judgment and timing with this commentary (it was broadcast yesterday).

NPR also reported on Bush's claim of responsibility, that story is here.

Since I don't have a politics category and don't feel like creating one, I don't know where to post this. So I think this one will be...