In 2001, dismayed at his son’s plans to leave New Orleans because there were no jobs, Nagin decided to stand for mayor of the city they call The Big Easy. It was his first and, to date, only political campaign.

Nagin the Republican repositioned himself as Nagin the Democrat, but still preached a can-do creed, challenging African Americans to make the free-market dream work for them.

His populist policies, to cut the city’s spiralling crime rate, end the seemingly endemic corruption and cronyism which characterised its politics and revitalise a moribund local economy, caught the mood of the times, and he was elected.

“I’m not in it for the money,” he said on the night of his election. “I’m in it for our children and grandchildren.”

Radio rant

Once in office, the mayor set to work with a will. There was a police crackdown on local corruption, which led to everyone from unlicensed cab drivers to Nagin’s own cousin being arrested.

Tax evaders were summarily dealt with and $1m was made available to fill in the city’s 60,000 potholes.

A personable and popular figure, with an engagingly informal style, the mayor and his reformist initiatives were welcomed by the vast number of citizens.

But not everyone has been pleased. Black groups, who previously benefited from the city’s patronage when it came to jobs, condemned Nagin’s administration for being “too white”.

Despite the deployment of vast resources, the city’s murder rate has rocketed, with more than 200 victims so far this year.

A man carries a baby through the flooded streets of New Orleans

What now for the people of The Big Easy?

And his use of the City Hall website to personally endorse a Republican candidate for governor of Louisiana led to a furore, especially when the Democrat Kathleen Blanco, won the race.

But Hurricane Katrina has left Ray Nagin, the man who once vowed never to beg Washington for anything, being reduced to venting his impotent fury in a rambling, obscenity-laden, rant at the White House on a local radio station.

“I keep hearing that this is coming, that is coming,” he fumed, in one repeatable moment. “And my answer to that today is… where is the beef?”

As the search goes on for the dead and as those citizens who have remained in their homes are being forcibly removed, the blame game is in full swing.

Nagin has been slammed for failing to evacuate New Orleans early enough, thereby condemning thousands of poor, mostly African-American, citizens to face the full horror of the storm.

As Democrats prepare to mount a political assault on the Bush administration for its perceived failings, some political commentators are musing on the possibility of a 1927-style transformation in Louisiana politics.

And Ray Nagin, once the bright hope of this run-down, murder-ridden, place may yet see his own political career washed away with so much else in the city.

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