From WWLtv.com Mayor of beleaguered New Orleans stays cool in the crisis [size=-1]10:56 AM CDT on Thursday, September 1, 2005 [/size] [size=-1]By ADAM NOSSITER Associated Press [/size] NEW ORLEANS — Anxious and frightened, the citizens had the mayor of New Orleans surrounded. They wanted reassurance, answers, a firm date when normal lives could be resumed. Ray Nagin wouldn't give it to them. He listened calmly, not trying to escape the hotel corridor. But there was no sugarcoating. "You need to listen very carefully," Nagin told them. "For the next two or three months, in this area, there will not be any commerce, at all. No electricity, no restaurants. This is the real deal. It's not living conditions." Outside, it is sweltering chaos. A once-functioning American city is suddenly in a state of nature. But Nagin is calm, at least outwardly. Facing the greatest challenge any mayor could face, he is, say those who know him, tackling the catastrophe methodically. He says everyone should leave -- an unprecedented conclusion, but one he says is the only possible one in a city that has become uninhabitable. As the overwhelming problems come up, one by one -- whole neighborhoods destroyed, thousands needing rescue, thousands more who must be evacuated, no services and looting in the streets -- Nagin focuses in, advisers say. Moving between city hall and a command post set up at the Hyatt across the street -- both surrounded by water -- the mayor searches for the quickest way out. It will be weeks before this ex-businessman's stewardship of the crisis can be realistically assessed. For now, though, he is keeping the cool that has become his trademark in New Orleans. The rest of the article... http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/090105ccjrcwkatnagin.13ae62e9.html
Can we have an election tomorrow because we could use some competent leadership in the Governors Mansion now.
Nagin really is showing us the resolve that we all need at this time... His political career is only beginning
