Why Mayor Nagin won re-election...

Many political pundits from outside New Orleans predicted that Mayor Ray Nagin would be turned out of office because of his many "failures." His reference to New Orleans as a "chocolate city" had led to a chorus of complaints about the insensitivity of the mayor.

So why did the mayor win re-election?

The people who voted in Saturday's runoff election have lots of reason to be angry. And yet it appears they didn't take it out on their mayor. Here's what a lot of people outside New Orleans don't understand. For people who lost their homes the biggest "failure" was the breaks in the levees that caused the drowning of the city...and the failure of the levees was a failure of the federal government.

Mayor Nagin was responsible for a number of failures, including an inadequate evacuation plan to deal with a major hurricane. But none of Nagin's failures compares with the failure of the federal government to provide levees that would protect the people of New Orleans.