New York Times:

Not since he sat in a Florida classroom as the World Trade Center burned a thousand miles away has President Bush faced a test quite like the one he returned to Washington to confront this afternoon.

He's going to have a much more difficult time with this one though. First, this was a natural disaster so there's no way to set up an "us vs. them" strategy. It's the classic modern Republican political strategy, the latest incarnation of Nixon's "southern strategy." But it can't be us vs. Mother Nature. Or can it, given this administration's and Congress' open hostility to the environment?

Seriously though, he's going to have a hard time parlaying this national crisis (we're all Cajun this week) into a boost in poll numbers or bipartisanship. Right now it looks like the right is settling for the people left behind - the "looters" who are merely doing what they need to do to survive - to use as their scapegoats. Except for when they're blaming the gays. Fortunately, most of the American public sees this ridiculous hysteria for what it's worth.

With nobody to blame, the president might actually have to do something to help those affected without profiting from or exploiting the tragedy. We're pulling for you, sir; you can do it!