President Obama answers the question, 'Why are you so unpopular in Texas?'

WFAA’s Brad Watson asked him that question in last week’s most talked about interview. And Obama answers it by letting the state of Texas twist while wildfires rage. Today is the 11th day since Gov. Perry sought federal assistance, with no answer so far. And I’ll point out here that Texas is a net contributor to the federal kitty, meaning we pay in more than we get back. That has been true for about 30 years now. So, first, we’re asking for our own money back, and second, crises such as the current one are among the reasons we have a federal government. Not to mandate what we do in our personal economic decisions or tell us what to eat or coerce us to buy expensive new politically correct cars, but to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare of the sovereign states. This is the president’s job, and the current one is terrible at it.

In a strongly worded letter to President Obama on April 16, Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked for a federal emergency declaration that would release more US resources – and cash – to fight what may be the worst wildfire season in Lone Star State history. …

In an e-mail, FEMA spokesman Bradley Carroll said Perry’s request for a statewide disaster declaration is under review. He also noted that in cases of natural disasters such as wildfires, the first responders are local emergency personnel, volunteers, humanitarian organizations, and private groups, and he pointed to 20 fire management assistance grants that FEMA has already applied to specific working fires in Texas.

We never heard that timeline during Katrina, outside the blogs. The Bush administration acted well within the statutory timeline, and even begged the governor of Louisiana at the time, Kathleen Blanco, to allow federal relief in. She refused, and the media helped politicize that disaster. Not so much when it’s Texas bearing the brunt, though.

Here and now with the worst wildfires in Texas history raging, the Obama administration is sitting on its hands. This is no one-off; every time disaster has struck the south since this president’s inauguration, he has sat on his hands while the crisis festered. Nashville floods — the gulf oil spill — now the wildfires. It is strongly evident now that Barack Obama really doesn’t care about the south at all.

And that’s among the reasons the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in Washington is so unpopular in Texas.