Two Calamities for the Price of One
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Random
Okay, so this is interesting to me. Hurricane Gustav (which I can’t say without a German accent) is heading to Louisiana, and a few different things are going on. Deja vu for one, as I’m watching Anderson Cooper standing in New Orleans. But this time around, three years after Katrina, I have a different perspective. Now I sit here, watching CNN and MSNBC, I have a better understanding of what goes into emergency planning, and what an amazing undertaking it really is.
I am excited to see that evacuation seems to be going better in New Orleans than before. The organization of buses to get people without transportation out of town is heartening, as is the fact that evacuation started so soon. I am, however, a little concerned about Nagen. The poor guy probably can’t win no matter what he says, but he used SUCH strong words yesterday, and now that the storm is predicted to come in at a level lower than before, I worry that the next time, if it’s worse, people won’t believe him when he says move, because hey, Gustav wasn’t that bad.
The political implications are intriguing as well. The RNC looks to be significantly downgraded, with just the call to order on Monday. Bush and Cheney won’t be attending. McCain and Palin are going to visit the Louisiana command center, and may speak via satellite, I think. I’m happy that they recognize that partying might not be the best thing to do right now, although I also wonder about the motivation. If they come through with calls for assistance, and that helps the Red Cross, then great. Of course, I was looking forward to watching the speeches and throwing things at the television. The DNC laid out such specific concerns and plans – how would the RNC speakers respond?
The next question for me is how this will effect the campaigns. Will it? I know there are bumps in the polls after conventions, but those tend to go away. So by (effectively) not having a convention for the RNC but having one for the DNC, does anything change? Are there people out there who watch the conventions and base their votes on that? Or are they both just events where they preach to the choir?
We shall see . . .
