Are we being realistic about New Orleans? (Keith Olbermann)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

Are we being realistic about New Orleans? (Keith Olbermann)


SECAUCUS -- We are not acknowledging much besides the best-case scenario in New Orleans.

The city may not be back in six weeks. Or six months. Or six years.

That’s kind of shocking to say, given the trauma and dislocation of the last five days. But it’s true nonetheless. We have to be hopeful, for the 23,000 now getting a tour of the sports domes of the southwest, for the million or more feeling far away and lost, for the people still trapped, for the unknown hundreds or thousands dead.

But long-term we may be doing them -- and ourselves -- more harm than good.

Consider two pieces in this morning’s papers from separate fields -- science and sports -- in which relying on the best-case scenario can be fatal or financially disastrous. While we instinctively shake our heads at Mayor Ray Nagin’s revision of his recovery timetable from 10-12 weeks, to 14-16, while we wonder why he should be so dour when our modern world can put the Stock Exchange back on line on 9/17/01, when we have technological capability undreamed of even when we were rebuilding Europe after the Second World War -- it may prove that even Mr. Nagin may be wearing rose-colored glasses.