She overwhelmed her...

As we watched the first reports after Katrina hit New Orleans, and the levees were overtopped, I said to my wife (after watching a brief press conference with Gov. Blanco), that she was totally in over her head. I could see it in her eyes.

So, (via the Puppy Blender) I see that even the NYT is reporting the same. She dithered and delayed until the damages were too much to control.

The article includes a very subtle cutting quote at women executives...

"Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?" asked one senior administration official, who spoke anonymously because the talks were confidential. [emphasis mine]

Now I'll accept (without knowing) that Gov. Blanco is a good administrator and that this is important in an Executive, but the message I'm getting here is this: Elect a woman and you risk getting someone not capable of handling an emergency. It is clear that Gov. Blanco did not perform her responsibilites as she should have, and that the suffering and death are partly her fault. [And I won't even begin to speak about that complete idiot, Mayor Nagin.] There are certainly women politicians who would have done better than Gov. Blanco (Hillary! and my midget dyke-governor come to mind), and equally, there are touchy-feely male politicians who one might expect would perform at least as badly as Gov. Blanco. But the differences in character of women who are care-givers and compassionate, verses the character of men who are problem-solvers and leaders cannot be dismissed here.