In The Eye Of The Storm

by digby

It's great seeing President McCain on CNN speaking directly to the country, directing the convention and the hurricane efforts and all, but I would think even the media sycophants could find time to talk to a Democrat or two in this weird HurriConvention coverage.

It's reminding me of McCain stepping up to the podium during the Georgia crisis a couple of weeks back. The shit comes down and he's there, pretending to be president and Bush lets him. (Junior is playing the unlikely role of paper pushing bureaucrat down in the hurricane situation room, while Maverick makes the big pronouncements.) The media have no compunction about showing McCain doing his little star turn, which on this holiday week-end is likely all that people will see until the storm hits.

I saw Rove on Fox this morning going on and on about how much better everything was going to be this time for Louisiana because they had Bobby Jindal in office. Apparently, Rick Perry and Haley Barbour proved that the problem was the Democratic Governor and Republicans are much better in a crisis. And the good news for Democrats is that the entire news media is gathered with the entire Republican establishment to bring us this story for the next week.

I realize that this will likely remind people of Katrina and that should be bad for Republicans. But McCain is going to put on a show to demonstrate that he's a "differnt kinda Republican" than Bush. He's going to be all over our television sets with his own Brownie troop, Lindsay, Sarah and Joe, trailing behind him. The picture will say "McCain is in charge." If the response is as bad as Katrina, he'll suffer for it. If it isn't, I'm afraid these next few days are going to help him a lot more than a standard convention would have.

The Democrats have to get on the radar screen here and it isn't going to be easy to do it without looking like opportunists. I don't have a lot of bright ideas. Perhaps Al Gore could be persuaded to make himself available?


Update: ferchristsake. I was half joking, but they are really going for it:

GOP, citing Gustav, makes case for McCain

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL - Republicans are already citing Hurricane Gustav as a major reason why voters should pick Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) this fall.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) made the case Sunday that McCain is best equipped to lead the country -- whether it's acts of terrorism or acts of God.

Appearing on Fox News, Coleman repeatedly cited the campaign theme of "country first" when describing efforts to prepare the Gulf Coast for Hurricane Gustav.

He also pointed out that new leaders will be responding to the hurricane, noting there is a "different governor" and "a different FEMA."