However much I dislike Thomas Friedman, he wrote an essay after Katrina that described 9-11 and Katrina as the bookends to Bush's blank check.

Katrina is the ace in the hole for anyone who dislikes the direction this country is moving; there is no greater cause in America, no place that is more of an epicenter for any sociopolitical issue a person could care to name. New Orleans is undeniable: no photo op, no chimaera, no cost benefit analysis can deny that there is no place that so boldly endorses the need for a progressive social agenda as the Crescent City.

New Orleans was this city prior to the storm, and she remains even more so today--the place that challenged America to live up to the narratives it tells of itself, and the only city in this country with any sense of irony. Warner can see the writing, and I think we should too: it's his ticket to a nomination, and our means to changing the trajectory of this country.

While I agree that the victims need priority, money, and justice, I think government dollars would be better spent on relocating New Orleans citizens.

Why? Global warming. Even if our country totally got on the ball starting tommorrow, I just don't think we'll impact the problem quickly enough to prevent several feet of rising sea levels. To rebuild that city is to throw good money after bad and it's a cruel risk to people's lives. What we rebuild will be destroyed again in our lifetime (I'm fairly certain) and sooner rather than later.

And we need to be prepared. Much of our population lives in low-lying coastal areas. They're all in trouble. We need to be prepared for the huge personal and financial costs.

Our government - and it's a firm reflection of our citizens - needs to realize avoiding the costs of right action in terms of global warming is "penny wise and pound foolish."

Pre K: 460,000 people. Now: about half that. No place recovers from that kind of dislocation. We need to take a rational view of this and understand that NOLA is effectively gone and that pouring billions into an infrastructure that no one will use is pointless. There is no way that a city can function with islands development amidst vast tracks of vacant homes, snakes and pollution.

Sorry Mr. Warner. You can't talk this sort of opportunity-for-all shiny talk the day after press reports of you calling for courting the bigot vote. Winning over the conservative leaning states to the Democratic party will mean compromising things like stands on gay rights. Don't Ask/Don't Tell and DOMA are irrefutable evidence of this. Clinton appeased bigots rather than standing for equal rights for all of us.

I make no apologies if I sound angry. As a gay man I don't have the same rights as most other tax paying, law abiding adults in this country. It's literally a physical danger for me to hold a partner's hand in public in this country. Politicians who bow to bigotry make that seem acceptable.

Willingness to sell out the rights of one group is plain evidence you'd do it whenever you stand to gain politically. So your concern about the people of New Orleans seems like cheap political opportunism. I moved away from New Orleans the year before Katrina but worried sick over friends still there and I do to this day. Those of us who have lived in long forgotten poor cities like New Orleans have heard all this crap before. After election time, we hear only silence from your lot.

Mr. Warner, that you're a typical politician is on display for all to see.

Hey, Salon. Doesn't it seem a bit gross to run a piece supposedly about the tragedy of New Orleans with nothing but an image of Mr. Warner to accompany it?

Just goes to my point that this article is all about political promotion by and for Mr. Warner and has nothing to do with the losses of Katrina and how we can fix things.

Gov. Warner sounds like a man with plans, for New Orleans and for the United States.

Great opinion piece and better opinions.

This is the kind of man we need leading the country.

So, Warner is a political opportunist? And Hillary Clinton is not?

Seems the general political strategy among national politicians across the board is "Let's unite all the races...against the gays."

If only Mark Warner were a typical politician! He is a clear thinker, an excellent writer, and an articulate speaker. His priorities may not track yours exactly, but we are very lucky to have him among the Democratic contenders.

read their words, look into their eyes...compare this to all "authorities" you have ever met since childhood...99 percent of these politicans are obvious, selfish, narcissistic, hypocrical, denial experts...just like the rest of us humans...

but, do you see worse than yourself or your peers in this man...if not he may need to go to Washington and sacrifice his Character for us all...

I would greatly appreciate it as "I" would have NO hope, if, wealthy and connected, to achieve "meaningful" public office (ray nagin's election being unmeaningful public office)

I am quite sure there are VERY few, "progressive", open minded, liberals who have Not experienced the joys and "dramas" of emotion and ecstacy...

Where, Many religious zealots exist - Experts at hiding their sick perversions of joy and ecstscy - perfect "media politicans" - These are truly a dime a dozen...

and they act as if they are scared of us - how funny if they realized how "petrified" WE - and most children, and animals - ARE OF THEM.

This is a great first step, to redirect the nation's attention from the horrors on TV last year to the steps the city is now taking, largely on its own until the federal money actually arrived (last week?).

Some red flags for local concerns: how exactly is the health care system going to get fixed when the entire country's is broken? Yes we desperately need more beds and doctors in NOLA first of all, but software isn't going to do the trick for the systemic breakdown in US healthcare.

And what about mental health? Why is NOLA getting a third the money for counseling that was sent to post-9/11 NYC? Remember that 75% of local mental health care providers as GONE, while virtually everyone in the city could use a few sessions or more. The cops are putting distressed people in jail because they get mental health care faster there than in the emergency rooms.

Please everybody be very very attentive when you hear the phrase mixed-income housing. In the pre-K "redevelopment" of the St. Thomas projects, it meant almost no units for the previous residents, and no way for them to maintain community ties when scattered to the winds across other, already crowded and "dysfunctional" public housing projects. Remember that Wal-Mart that we saw looted during Katrina? It's on the site of that so-called successful redevelopment. No wonder it was a huge target for the neighborhood!

Last: what about the wetlands. Seriously people. It's really really important.

It's so great to hear Dems taking a position on New Orleans, but I just want to remind them all that there is so much to do. They can't all do it all, but let's keep the whole picture in mind.