Governor Blanco Response

The university did a great thing by getting a speaker with the credentials of Governor Blanco. While seeing an important political speaker can provide insight into the workings of the American political system, Governor Blanco’s speech was fairly predictable and could’ve been delivered by anyone with a working knowledge of the Katrina crisis. By starting out her speech by giving a generic “you can be whatever you want to be” introduction, she set the mood for a bland speech, the direction it ultimately took. Someone with such knowledge and beliefs from a time of crisis should’ve shared her personal response, instead of simply recounting, and then denying, what everyone in the audience had seen in the media. It also seemed as though Blanco was simply trying to defend herself from being seen as somebody who failed to properly respond to the disaster (the media portrayal) by going through an item by item list of how the federal government failed in every way. It’s very possible that Governor Blanco has accomplished some great things as Governor of Louisiana, but it certainly wasn’t apparent to me after hearing her speak.