Bobert: Your hatred is showing up in the form of rhetoric.

The Gov of Louisiana was the one bragging:

"I believe we are prepared," she said in Jefferson Parish on Aug. 27. "That's the one thing that I've always been able to brag about."


By Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit
Updated: 12:53 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2005

        
Lisa Myers
Senior investigative correspondent


WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — It was Gov. Blanco's first big disaster — and less than 48 hours before Katrina hit, she reassured the state.

"I believe we are prepared," she said in Jefferson Parish on Aug. 27. "That's the one thing that I've always been able to brag about."
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Though experts had warned it would take 48 hours to evacuate New Orleans, Blanco did not order a mandatory evacuation that Saturday.

"We're going to pray that the impact will soften," she said.

Blanco and the mayor waited until Sunday, Aug. 28 — only 20 hours before Katrina came ashore — to order a mandatory evacuation, the first of what disaster experts and Louisiana insiders say were serious mistakes by the governor.   

"It certainly appeared that there was a lot of indecisiveness exhibited by the governor in the early stages of the disaster," says Louisiana State Democratic Senator Donald Cravins.

A key criticism: the governor's slowness in requesting federal troops. She told the president she needed help, but it wasn't until Wednesday, Aug. 31 that she specifically asked for 40,000 troops.

That day, in a whispered conversation with her staff caught on camera, the governor appears to second-guess herself.

"I really need to call for the military," Blanco tells an aide.

"Yes you do, yes you do," is the reply.

"And I should have started that in the first call," Blanco adds.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9613133/