The Republican National Convention is still going to kick off tomorrow, despite previous talk about delaying it because of Hurricane Gustav. It's currently a Category 3 storm, but folks in the area fear it might gain force before hitting land sometime on Monday. While the RNC won't be delayed, the hurricane is altering plans for the event. From Politico:
President Bush is unlikely to make it to the Republican National Convention and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) may deliver his acceptance speech by satellite because of the historically huge hurricane threatening New Orleans, top officials said.
But officials insisted that the convention, scheduled to open here on Monday, will go on--albeit in a more limited and sedate form--even if Hurricane Gustav stays on its projected path. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation beginning at 8 a.m. Sunday after federal officials said Gustav could grow to a catastrophic Category 5 and hit Monday afternoon somewhere between eastern Texas and western Mississippi.
McCain made plans to travel to a threatened area of the Gulf coast on Sunday, accompanied by his wife, Cindy, and running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). They planned to meet Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) in Jackson, Miss., aides said.
McCain was scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech Thursday but now may do so from the devastation zone if the storm hits the U.S. coast with the ferocity feared by forecasters.
Comments
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Steven T Posted 3:34 am
31 Aug 2008
Warning: Exploitation ahead
Watch as the R's try to turn the hurricane into a grand propaganda win for McCain. Yup, he's going down there and making thing happen. And Bush is going to show how much he's improved the feds' coordination with the states and localities.
Lost in their chest thumping will be the small fact that the key reason why the Katrina response was so terrible was because Bush had systematically undercut the superb response network built up by the Clinton administration.
I suspect that the current response effort represents at least a partial return to the Clinton model of strong and proactive federal coordination. In other words, a system grounded in the idea that government is good, not the enemy.
Don't expect any R's to laud the good old days when when we had a president who better understood the proper role of the feds regarding disaster management.
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moehrlei Posted 8:59 am
31 Aug 2008
Drill now
Seem ironic that McCain's off-shore drilling is, once again, getting torn up by mother nature. Yet more proof it's a bad idea.
No individual raindrop ever considers itself responsible for the flood.
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Werdna Posted 2:49 pm
31 Aug 2008
Bush and McCain
I think the McCain team has been trying very hard to find a reason why Bush shouldn't go to the convention. Now, it seems like they have.
Even though McCain would follow almost exactly Bush's horrible and unpopular policies, he still has to seem as if he is bringing in "change".
Andrew Eisenberg
The gateway project is wrong---http://www.livableregion.ca
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amazingdrx Posted 10:13 pm
31 Aug 2008
Blatant
"McCain was scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech Thursday but now may do so from the devastation zone"
This will look like blatant exploitation.
Obama and Biden better divert campaign funds to the Salvation Army troops on the ground in the gulf region. Remember Katrina? When everyone else failed, Red Cross, local, state, and federal government, the Salvation Army didn't falter.
Libby Dole's Red Cross, the org that charges US troops for donuts and gave nearly all hemophiliacs aids through their criminal incompetence, are the GOP, heckuva-job-brownies of emergency rescue organizations.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
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