NEW ORLEANS — Sen. John McCain toured the Lower Ninth Ward today with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal today, and a group of 50 or so traveling and local press tagged along.
I rode from Mr. McCain's hotel on his "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus, along with seven or eight other reporters, to the Lower Ninth. Mr. McCain talked at length about the progress of recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and said the Bush administration has not done enough to reduce red tape for New Orleans residents trying to return home.
More details from the ride on the candidate's bus will be up on this blog later, but I'm now at a campaign event and just have time to relate a funny anecdote from the tour of the Lower Ninth.
When the "Straight Talk" rolled up to Caffin Street, we saw the rest of the press corps in the back of a large, Army flatbed truck. When we got off the bus, expecting to walk along with the senator and governor, we were told to get up in the back of a second truck. Up we went on a ladder and into the back, and that is where we stayed for the entire 30-minute tour of Caffin Street and onto Marais Street.
Here is a picture of the two trucks with all of us in the back.
— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (5)
Spent many an hour in the back of a deuce and a half. Thirty minutes is nothing. These look a lot more substantial than the ones I rode in.
Posted by Larry Stone | April 25, 2008 1:18 AM
What did McCain have to say at the time of Katrina or when it became apparent there were problems?
Posted by MsSwin | April 25, 2008 4:47 AM
MsSwin, yesterday some folks at Xavier University of New Orleans said he was the first senator to visit after the storm. As for how much he blamed the admin, i don't think it was as harshly as now, when he's trying to distance himself from the president for electoral purposes.
Posted by Jon Ward | April 25, 2008 8:54 AM
Let me see, you were given a tour of the lower ninth ward from the back of a Amry Vehicle, surrounded by Military personnel. Not one comment about the people who are trying to move back to this devastated area after the failure of the Army Corps of Engineers and the subcontractors they hired to build the levees properly. Then the comments about this trip have been about what its like to ride on a Duce and half. Not about why is this press on the duce in the first place or why a presidential candidate is surrounded by military personnel? You and your reader appear to be missing the point of the tragic situation these photos show two and a half years after Hurricane Katrina and what they represent for the future if MCPRESS TOUR MAKES IT INTO THE OVAL OFFICE!
Posted by Gordon Soderberg | April 27, 2008 9:52 AM
Gordon thanks for your comment. Two entries below this post I wrote about my visit with some people who have returned to the Lower Ninth Ward and are trying to make it. The entry is called "The Lower Ninth."
Posted by Jon Ward | April 28, 2008 10:08 AM