3/4 Undoing Bush: Competence at FEMA

2009: President Obama appoints Florida emergency manager Craig Fugate to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today.  Fugate, a Republican, has earned praise for his management of Florida’s response to hurricanes since 2001.  Former Florida governor Jeb Bush offered his support, saying “Kudos to President Obama for a great choice”. 

The Obama choice is in sharp contrast to Bush’s first choice for FEMA head, Joe Allbaugh, who had no emergency management experience (but was a Bush college buddy and a former Bush campaign manager).  Bush replaced Allbaugh with another unqualified FEMA head, Michael Brown (a.k.a. ‘Brownie’), whose ineptitude became clear during the Hurricane Katrina disaster.