President Barack Obama has sought help from his predecessor- George W. Bush- to help in the relief efforts for Haiti.According to AFP, an anonymous White House official claimed that Bush "will join (ex-president Bill) Clinton in helping with disaster relief" for the country still reeling from Tuesday's massive earthquake. Furthermore, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today that Obama spoke with Bush last night to create an alliance similar to one made by Clinton and George H.W. Bush in the aftermath of 2005’s deadly tsunami in the Pacific.
Earlier today Obama announced that at least $100 million would be allocated in humanitarian and rescue aid to Haiti where the Haitian Red Cross estimated the death toll between 45,000 and 50,000 people.
Clinton already has ties to Haiti after being named U.N. special envoy to Haiti in 2008, and he recently called on all Americans to help in the relief efforts. Meanwhile, the alliance with Obama comes as the White House has tried to avoid the mistakes made by the Bush administration after other natural disasters:
The administration urgently sought to show it had learned from the mistakes of Obama's predecessor, who was criticized for the initial U.S. response to a tsunami disaster in south Asia in 2004 and for his handling of Hurricane Katrina's onslaught on the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005.Image- ABC News (January 2009 image of Barack Obama and George W. Bush).
The White House also took pains to show Obama was staying on top of events, in contrast to Bush, widely seen as detached as Katrina battered New Orleans for days more than five years ago…
That attitude could boost Obama's earlier promise to devote more attention to Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that felt neglected under the Bush administration and had not been high on the current president's policy agenda either.
Online Sources- FOX News, New York Times, AFP, ABC News
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