Think real fast

President Bush is catching hell from some quarters for not responding quickly enough to the Gulf Coast catastrophe. Whether or not the criticism is fair, a chief executive as seasoned as Bush ought to know that in times like these, perception is everything. In 1979, Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic -- Mayor Richard J. Daley's hand-picked successor -- apparently got voted out because of the perception that he did not respond quickly enough to paralyzing January snowstorms.

And that was just some fucking snowstorms.

Note to Karl Rove: House Speaker Dennis Hastert's let's-bulldoze-New Orleans rhetoric is not helping perceptions.