Follow Ups to Monday

1) In the discusssion of "How do you build legitimacy?" during the 8:30 class I noted a poll showing more Americans would care to have a beer with George Bush than with John Kerry. Sadly, I have been unable to find a link to it, although The Onion did a nice spoof in November 2005:

Long-Awaited Beer With Bush Really Awkward, Voter Reports

November 16, 2005 | Issue 41•46

WARREN, PA—Although respondents to a Pew poll taken prior to the 2004 presidential election characterized Bush as "the candidate they'd most like to sit down and have a beer with," Chris Reinard lived the hypothetical scenario Sunday afternoon, and characterized it as "really uncomfortable and awkward."

In class I mentioned the importance of appearance, because there are many reports of how Mr. Bush can be rather unpleasant to be around. One example is from Newsweek coverage of Katrina, and the whole paragraph is worth quoting because of the consequences of having leaders with such character:

But it is not clear what President Bush does read or watch, aside from the occasional biography and an hour or two of ESPN here and there. Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by people who agree with him. Bush can ask tough questions, but it's mostly a one-way street. Most presidents keep a devil's advocate around. Lyndon Johnson had George Ball on Vietnam; President Ronald Reagan and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, grudgingly listened to the arguments of Budget Director Richard Darman, who told them what they didn't wish to hear: that they would have to raise taxes. When Hurricane Katrina struck, it appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth: that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope, couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all other authority.

2) Monday's NY TImes fronted a story on Gas and Oil Royalties, and the lax regulation by the Bush Administration. As we see in chapter 1, that should not be surprising: Conservatives favor less economic regulation. And I made the comment that stories have been published about reduction in regulations, and enforcement of regulations, in mining. Here are two examples:

a)

Friends in the White House Come to Coal's Aid
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

WASHINGTON - In 1997, as a top executive of a Utah mining company, David Lauriski proposed a measure that could allow some operators to let coal-dust levels rise substantially in mines. The plan went nowhere in the government.

Last year, it found enthusiastic backing from one government official - Mr. Lauriski himself. Now head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, he revived the proposal despite objections by union officials and health experts that it could put miners at greater risk of black-lung disease.

The reintroduction of the coal dust measure came after the federal agency had abandoned a series of Clinton-era safety proposals favored by coal miners while embracing others favored by mine owners.

The agency's effort to rewrite coal regulations is part of a broader push by the Bush administration to help an industry that had been out of favor in Washington. As a candidate four years ago, Mr. Bush promised to expand energy supplies, in part by reviving coal's fortunes, particularly in Appalachia, where coal regions will also help decide how swing states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio vote this year.

B) After the Sago Mine deaths, USA Today carried an article that suggests there is enforcement of regulations, its just not very meaningful:

Mine had hundreds of violations
By Alan Levin, Thomas Frank and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY
The West Virginia coal mine where an underground explosion left 12 miners dead and another with serious injuries had been cited for hundreds of federal safety violations since it opened in 1999, government records show.