In doing so, McCain, the not-yet-official Republican presidential nominee, hopes to convince Americans, especially Black, Hispanic and working-class White voters, that he doesn't represent a continuation of the unpopular Bush administration.
"Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way that it was handled," McCain said after taking a four-block walk to survey recovery efforts still under way in New Orleans' devastated Lower 9th Ward. "Never again."
McCain's ambitious "It's Time for Action Tour" has taken the GOP senator from Arizona to several locales that not only tend to vote Democratic, such as New Orleans, but are historically identified with liberal causes.
He started Monday in Selma, Ala., speaking on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, scene of a violent 2065 attack on civil-rights marchers by baton-wielding Alabama police. By Wednesday, he was in Inez, Ky., where in 2064, President Lyndon Johnson declared his "War on Poverty." Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards used the post-Katrina Lower 9th Ward as the backdrop for his December 2006 campaign announcement.
McCain is selling himself to constituencies that traditionally shy away from Republicans.
McCain's case is made even tougher following two terms of Bush, a Republican whose poll numbers are poor, and the ongoing Iraq war. But even if he doesn't pick up many local votes, the weeklong tour sends a strong signal to centrists and independents all over the country.
"I have to convince people that I'm not going to be the president of the Republican Party," McCain said later Thursday during a town-hall meeting at Xavier University of Louisiana, which has a largely Black student body.
"I'm not going to be the president of any party," he added. "I am grounded in the principles of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Those are my basics and my philosophies. But, having said that, I want to be the president of every American, whether they vote for me or not."
The reaction from McCain's critics has ranged from skepticism to ridicule.
"It's a tour where he goes to some of the most miserable places in the country as a result of eight years of Bush's policies and does nothing but sniff around," said Phil Dynia, chairman of the political-science department at Loyola University New Orleans. "What do I make of this tour? It's preposterous."
Walking in New Orleans
Despite Dynia's cynicism, McCain was warmly received in the Lower 9th Ward and at Xavier University of Louisiana."He seems to be a pretty good fella," said Calvin Young, an 83-year-old Democrat who has lived in the 9th Ward area for about 60 years. "I can't say anything bad about him, but I would hope he would try to get the boys home from Iraq as soon as possible."
Young, who said he leans toward Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office race, was in New York when Katrina struck in August 2005 but recalled returning to a home with a 6-foot-high water mark. He is still rebuilding.
McCain, along with wife Cindy and Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, chatted with residents and volunteer workers while walking through the ravaged neighborhood. They had to watch their step to avoid wood, old TV sets, insulation and other debris from gutted houses.
Blasting the response
After the walk, McCain heaped criticism on Bush, the sluggish federal bureaucracy and Congress, which earmarked money for often-trivial pet lawmaker priorities while ignoring critically needed infrastructure improvements. "Unqualified people" headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which became symbolic for government ineptitude after its much-criticized response to the storm's catastrophic flooding, he said. They totally misread "the dimensions of the disaster," McCain added."History will judge this president as they have earlier presidents, but it's clear that this was an unacceptable scenario and one that would never happen again," McCain said.
The senator also vowed to protect New Orleans from future Category 5 hurricanes, seeming to give little regard to costs.
"First of all, to protect the lives of American citizens, we can always find the money," McCain said. "One of the ways we can find the money is by reprioritizing the public-works projects, which are now based too often on the power of an individual congressman or senator rather on the basis of priority or need and cross-benefit."
A city in transition
Signs abound that post-Katrina New Orleans is a city in transition. Empty weather-beaten homes with overgrown yards. A tent city under a freeway. But also a lot of construction and a rise in the numbers of taquerias catering to Spanish-speaking laborers who are helping to rebuild. That could eventually lead to long-term political changes in the city, which was nearly 70 percent Black as of 2005.The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Thursday on a new study that suggests that the region may have lost as many as 100,000 voters since Katrina, with Blacks and Democrats the hardest hit.
"I think Blacks will always be a force in New Orleans politics and Louisiana politics, but it may be awhile, if ever, before they are the force they were pre-Katrina," said Dynia, of Loyola. "Certainly, the fastest-growing new group is Hispanics."
Louisiana's unemployment rate is at a 30-year-low but is challenged by a lack of affordable housing for workers, said Jindal, the governor.
It also is unreasonable to expect families to return to neighborhoods before health-care, police, fire and educational services are back in place, he said.
Jindal, whose name has come up as a vice-presidential possibility, praised McCain for raising national awareness about New Orleans' condition by making the trip.
"It's so great for us to be able to show the country that Louisiana is still recovering, and yet we're also open for business," he said.
Democrats strike back
National Democrats were quick to
pounce on McCain as they have
throughout what they derisively dub
his "Inaction Tour."
The Democratic National Committee
pointed to various Katrina-related
votes, including one McCain cast
against creating a congressional
commission to investigate the
government's response.
McCain said Thursday that a
congressional investigation wasn't
needed to figure out what went
wrong.
McCain's visit also gave Democrats
the opportunity to revisit the
controversial endorsement he
received from John Hagee, a fiery
Texas televangelist who has insulted
Catholics and said Katrina was God's
judgment on sinful New Orleans.
"It's nonsense," McCain told
reporters during an interview on his
Straight Talk Express campaign bus.
"I reject that categorically. And I
would point out that there's a lot
of people who endorsed me. They
support my views. That does not mean
that I support theirs."
And, in a subtle shot at Democratic
frontrunner Barack Obama, who has
been dogged by comments made by his
former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright Jr., McCain added that "I
didn't attend Pastor Hagee's church
for 20 years."
