Figuring out where a presidential candidate stands on a particular issue is no easy task these days. But as the field of candidates (finally) begins to narrow, it might be useful to try and decipher where the remaining candidates stand on the rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and other Katrina-related issues.

Not that this seems to be much of an issue at all in this campaign so far — in his blog of December 9, Harry Shearer laments that the one thing all the candidates in the New Hampshire Primary had in common was being “totally, utterly, stunningly (to this observer) dedicated to ignoring the greatest disaster to befall an American city in modern times.”   

Though it may not be the centerpiece of anyone’s campaign, it can safely be said that as a group the Democratic candidates have made more campaign stops in New Orleans and spent significantly more time talking about Katrina than the Republicans.  (If you search the term “New Orleans” on John Edwards’ website, for example, you will get 151 hits.  Do the same on John McCain’s site, and the number is zero.) Of the Republicans, only Mike Huckabee — both a populist and a southerner, who governed a neighboring state when Katrina struck — has talked much about the storm and its aftermath.

The general lack of discussion about Katrina during the presidential campaign so far should hardly surprise anyone; it was barely an issue during the recent Louisiana gubernatorial race.  Shearer notes in his blog that “a theoretical candidate could offer to repair the city’s breached faith in its nation, to re-think the way great public works in this country are designed and built, to commit to a program of infrastructure repairs before more levees breach and more bridges collapse.”  The candidates we have may come up short in doing so, but it is still important to figure out where each of them stands — or, in the case of more than one of them, simply doesn’t.  To that end, we offer the following brief guide.

Barack Obama
Obama has made several stops in New Orleans along the campaign trail; at a speech at the Essence Music Festival in July he told crowds that “The legacy of race and poverty continues to shape our lives every day and it’s time we did something about it.” (Click here for full coverage of the speech). Obama’s official campaign website includes a downloadable five-page Katrina fact sheet entitled “Rebuilding the Gulf Coast and Preventing Future Catastrophes” (click here to read), as well as a YouTube video on the plan. Obama was back in New Orleans during the second anniversary commemoration in August; for coverage of the speech he gave then, click here.

Hillary Clinton
Like Obama, Clinton has included an extensive plan for rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as part of her repertoire. You can read her ten-point fact sheet on “A Presidential Gulf Coast Recovery Agenda” on her official website (click here to download). Among her proposals are “a stem-to-stern review of the Army Corps of Engineers’ plans and progress thus far” in rebuilding flood protection, a plan to expand affordable housing, and elevating FEMA to Cabinet-level status, a proposal supported by several other candidates. She, too, has made several stops in New Orleans during the campaign; click here to read coverage of a visit in May.

John Edwards
Edwards has the distinction of having made the official announcement of his candidacy in New Orleans (click here for a YouTube video about the event), and like the other two leading Democratic candidates, has laid out an extensive Gulf Coast Recovery plan on his campaign website (click here to read). He has been back for several campaign stops since then, most recently in November to support the work of Habitat for Humanity in rebuilding homes in the Upper Ninth Ward. Combatting poverty has been a centerpiece of Edwards’ campaign from the start, and he has frequently used the theme of “two Americas” in his stump speeches. 

Mike Huckabee
Huckabee’s website does not include any specific plans for rebuilding the Gulf Coast, but does include among the candidate’s most important issues a statement on “Crisis Management” (click here to read) that proposes removing FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and giving it Cabinet status. The website also notes the role Huckabee played in the rescue efforts after Katrina: “During the massive emergency of Hurricane Katrina, when local, state, and federal governments were in melt-down, I stepped forward and directed the rescue and relief of 75,000 victims.” He was the only major Republican contender to attend a second-anniversary forum on the future of New Orleans for the second anniversary of Katrina. (Duncan Hunter was the only other Republican to attend, while the three main Democratic candidates were all there.) Click here for more coverage.

John McCain
McCain held a fundraiser in New Orleans in July, but searches of the terms “New Orleans” and “Gulf Coast” on his website yield no results. (McCain did briefly lament the failure of communications during and after Katrina, but that appears to be the only mention of the storm and its aftermath on his site.)

Mitt Romney
While Romney does not directly address Katrina or the rebuilding of New Orleans on his website, there has been some press coverage of his comments about the storm, calling the federal response “disappointing” (click here to read). He also issued a brief statement of support for the city on the second anniversary of the storm.

Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani, who is running largely on the strength of his leadership of New York City after 9/11, has spoken on several occasions of improving the nation’s emergency response system.  After a recent tour of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Pearl, Mississippi, Giuliani told a crowd of supporters that emergency preparedness should be more localized and less dependent on the federal government.  Click here and here to read more about his comments.

Ron Paul
As a libertarian, Paul is hardly likely to support government spending to rebuild New Orleans; he has said on more than one occasion that events such as Katrina demonstrate the general inefficacy of the federal government. In two pieces written immediately after the storm, Paul argues that government-sponsored “top down” solutions to crises such as Katrina are doomed to failure and that the bureaucratic red tape attached tends to create more problems than it solves.  Click here and here to read.

Fred Thompson
While there is nothing on Thompson’s website about Katrina or Gulf Coast rebuilding, the candidate did make a recent campaign stop in Kenner, Louisiana, where he responded to a reporter’s question by saying he was disappointed with the federal response to Katrina (click here to read).