Indifference

Obama was asked on ABC’s “This Week” whether there was racism in the lack of evacuation planning for poor, black residents of New Orleans. He said he would not refer to the government response in that way, but said there was a much deeper, long-term neglect.

“Whoever was in charge of planning was so detached from the realities of inner city life in New Orleans ... that they couldn’t conceive of the notion that they couldn’t load up their SUV’s, put $100 worth of gas in there, put some sparkling water and drive off to a hotel and check in with a credit card,” Obama said.

Obama laments ‘historic indifference’
“There seemed to be a sense that this other America was somehow not on people’s radar screen. And that, I think, does have to do with historic indifference on the part of government to the plight of those who are disproportionately African-American.” He added that “passive indifference is as bad as active malice.”

Barack: I think it points to one of the big problems in this administration. They have excellent responses when it comes to PR, more detachment and less effectiveness when it comes to governing. I think that's been true in Iraq, it's been true across the board. A good example of this-We had a cabinet meeting this week, the senators had eight cabinet members, Donald Rumsfeld, Michael Chertoff. What was striking was even if people were reading the statistics of all the evacuations that had taken place-were telling us of all the wonderful things that have been done. There was no sense of reflection, no sense that ahhh things didn't go the way they were supposed to and that we needed to take away....There was a terrific spin operation, but not the kind of soul searching that I 'd think you'd want to see...from any administration..."