The Big Easy's Big Mistake

Never mind the buses left behind to rot in the water, instead of being used to evacuate city residents. Never mind the rants. Never mind the fact that he tried to pass the buck to anybody and everybody rather than take responsibility for his failures. Never mind the thousands that died due to his incompetence.

Despite all of that, Ray Nagin was re-elected Mayor of New Orleans Saturday. And I have a hard time understanding why.

The fact of the matter is that this election was not about race. It was not about Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal. Ray Nagin's incompetence cost lives. It is understandable that lives are going to be lost in a major storm; it is an unfortunate fact. However, when you do not use the resources you have available to you, when you make poor decisions, and when you act out instead of lead, you do not deserve to be re-elected by the people.

That is not to say that Mitch Landrieu's leadership would have been any better. The last thing that the city needed was a Liberal Democrat at the helm, particularly from one of Louisiana's connected political families.

It will be interesting to see, from here on out, if Nagin can actually grow from his catastrophic failure as a leader and make sure that these mistakes do not happen again.