What a disaster

Job’s for the Boys or cronyism is a common facet of the ‘winner takes all’ approach to electoral success. Along with patronage, the appointment of friends to key positions, regardless of merit, has become an accepted feature of the political game. The corruption, often seen as mild, is the use of public assets for personal ends.
The appointment of friends can have some positive aspects. For example, if there is a proven track record of cooperation and efficiency. It can also lead to waste and mismanagement. In the worst scenario it can lead to outright disaster.
The hapless Michael Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, seems to fall into the disaster category.
Only days after Bush had publicly praised him, saying: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," reports emerged that he had padded his resume, lacked real emergency relief experience and owed his job to political cronyism.
Critics have charged that Bush seemed isolated from real-time information and slow to grasp the immensity of the disaster in the days after the storm hit.
Certainly Michael Brown appeared ignorant about the plight of stranded survivors.
That no one could have foreseen the potential for massive disaster is still a matter of fierce debate.
That a person was appointed to head Federal Emergency Management Agency, who was totally unprepared for the job, is outright criminal.