On CNN yesterday, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blasted Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco for taking too long to make a key decision — he didn’t say what it was — during a meeting with President Bush:

“[Bush] said, ‘Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor.’ I said — and I don’t remember exactly what. There were two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.”

Now, it’s clear that Nagin has proved an unreliable source of information, but it is also true that charges of indecisiveness — or what her supporters call a “deliberative” nature — have dogged Blanco through her campaign for governor and time in office.

In September 2003, the Associated Press wrote that “confronted with sharp controversy, Blanco can appear hesitant.” On November 2, the Shreveport Times endorsed her opponent for governor, suggesting that Blanco and her governing team would be “indecisive” and “unprepared.” On November 8, 2003, the New Orleans Times Picayune published an article headlined, “Blanco Defends Studious Tack; Jindal Says Her Plans Are Short On Details.” The article began:

Listening to the campaign rhetoric, voters might think the choice in this year’s governor’s race is between an unsure procrastinator and a know-it-all bean counter.
With the two candidates having similar views on many issues, Democrat Kathleen Blanco and Republican Bobby Jindal have focused on defining their differences in management style.
Blanco says she will use studies and special commissions to build consensus for solutions to a few of the state’s biggest problems, while Jindal accuses her of lacking specific plans and depending on committees.

On January 11, 2004, Dan Juneau, head of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, defended Blanco against charges of indecisiveness. She’s not indecisive, Juneau wrote, just deliberate:

What kind of governor will Kathleen Blanco be? She will be quite different from her recent predecessors in many respects. For openers, she is a listener, and a good one. She doesn’t assume she knows everything and she likes to accumulate as much information as possible before finalizing a major decision. This trait of often being deliberate may cause some to claim she is indecisive as her governorship unfolds. But Governor Blanco would rather be criticized for taking her time in finding the right approach than for shooting from the hip and moving in the wrong direction.