One of the privileges of age is an assumed right to bore others with remembrances. Here are a few of mine about national political conventions.
We are in the midst of convention season, a grand attempt to make interesting two weeks of predictable political propaganda staged for TV. Barack Obama becomes the reincarnation of John F. Kennedy, while McCain takes on the visage of Theodore Roosevelt. Dashes of FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan will be added for spice. Yes, civic education is well served by the weeks devoted to politics-and we at the Center for Politics celebrate that-but the saccharine quality leaves a disagreeable aftertaste.
It was not always so.
My own political awakening began at my father’s knee in 1960. A World War II veteran who came back to the United States with civic fire, Dad was determined to make me a good citizen. So we watched both conventions together, almost gavel to gavel. Regular programming was suspended and the three networks-the whole of TV at the time-broadcast them live. While just seven years old, I was fascinated by the thousands of shouting adults in crazy hats, parading around the halls with placards and banners. The vote count at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles was dramatic, and John Kennedy did not go over the top until Wyoming was called at the end of the list of the states.
Some of our readers have questioned why we are posting about the weather and asking if it is some way political. Well, speaking for myself I have been posting because I think TMV is here to bring our readers news and information and when natural disasters threaten our fellow citizens it is worth reporting. I realize that we are all increasingly partisan these days but I think there are certain areas where we put those issues aside.
In that vein, also want to say how proud and pleased I have been to see Independents, Republicans and Democrats come together to help out the people in the path of Gustav. The Obama and McCain campaigns also deserve kudos for putting politics aside to urge everyone to donate their time and money to help out.
Unfortunately it looks like things are far from over though we do have good news with Gustav.
Gustav has now been officially downgraded to a Tropical Storm and is expected to bring rain to the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Kansas and Missouri. However the worst does appear to be over and, while there were some close calls with a few levees near New Orleans, it now looks like those levees have been saved.
In what I consider to be a nice sign of non partisanship, both the McCain and Obama campaigns have begun to help publicize a way we can all give a little help to our fellow citizens along the Gulf Coast (and perhaps help in advance for those in Georgia and South Carolina)
The major cellular phone providers are working together to let you donate money to the American Red Cross.
Simply text the word GIVE (4483) to the number 24537 or call 1-800-435-7669 and you can donate money to the Red Cross relief fund. The text message will donate $5 which will appear on your next monthly bill.
You can also go to www.redcross.org to donate.
I know this is normally a political site, but right now I am asking for us all to put that aside and help out those in need.
If the latest reports hold true, it looks like the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region in general have dodged a bullet. Thanks to the fact that Gustav moved more quickly than expected, it was not able to pick up as much energy as had been feared. As a result the storm landed as Category Two and now has been downgraded to a Category One.
Although there is certainly lots of wind and rain damage, it does not appear that the levees will be breached and that is a wonderful blessing. At this point it looks like Gustav will lose hurricane status sometime today and will then become a tropical storm and then tropical depression.
Of course, the storm will still bring lots of rain to Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma and there will probably be localized flooding. But given the possible outcome of a major Category 4 or 5 storm slamming into the region, things look to be fairly positive - all things considered.
But things are not over yet.
When we saw Katrina come through 3 years ago, it looked like we had dodged the bullet then but we soon discovered that this was not the case. This year the problem may turn out to be Hurricane Hanna.
Right now Hanna is a Category One storm and it is expected to make landfall somewhere along the Georgia/South Carolina coast sometime on Friday.
Now according to current projections Hanna will probably be only a Category 1 or 2 storm when it makes contact because it will not hit the warm waters of the Gulf. Since we are relieved with the fact that Gustav was only a Category Two storm when it landed, you might wonder why Hanna is such a big deal.
Well the problem is, ironically enough, the same one as we faced three years ago. There is a very good chance right now that Hanna will land very near Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is a large city with many trees and lots of 19th-century homes and, like New Orleans in 2005, it has not been struck by a hurricane in many years.
In fact, the last time there was a direct hit was nearly 30 years ago, in 1979, and the last time a really-bad storm struck was back in 1940. Hurricane Hugo landed to the north in 1989, but even that was almost 20 years ago.
As a result, Savannah may be in the same boat that New Orleans was in 2005, unprepared for a major storm and no time at this point for a lot of the preparations to be made. Louisiana and the Gulf Coast have been preparing for a major storm for three years, Georgia may only have a week.
Hopefully, of course, the planners in Georgia have taken heed of what happened in New Orleans and are ready to swing into contingency plans, but it may well be that Hanna is the storm we have all been dreading.
September 1st, 2008 By TONY CAMPBELL, TMV Columnist
Last week, the Democrats had one mission to accomplish and that was to nominate Barack Obama. This week, the Republican Party has three main issues to address to have a successful convention: attack Barack Obama, nominate John McCain, and introduce Sarah Palin to the American people.
Refuting the vision Barack Obama laid out Thursday night is important because no one has really given any significant airtime to deflating the rhetorical balloon he floated from Denver last week. In nominating John McCain, the Republicans must do a better job of crafting an understandable policy message. After eight years of the Bush Administration, it will not be enough for McCain to say that he is not Obama. McCain has to tell us why we should vote for him instead of why we should not vote for the other guy. If he cannot communicate that to the American people this week, the campaign for the presidency is over.
Also, the media will be splitting their focus between the Convention and Hurricane Gustav. With all of these pressures, the dilemma is that you only have four days to fulfill all three goals and less time to present your vision than the Democrats had last week. The more time you spend on introducing Governor Palin, the less time you have for attacking Obama or promoting McCain. I hope someone at the RNC Convention is really good in time and message management skills.
Pre-season is over. Next Sunday, the NFL will start its regular season schedule and the race for the presidency gets serious. The two greatest contact sports in the world are just about to begin…all I have to say is “play ball.”
September 1st, 2008 By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor
You have to give McCain campaign manager Rick Davis credit for one thing: he’s quickly becoming a master of the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” strategy. Or perhaps we could better characterize it as a page from the “Do as I say, not as I do” school book. As we continue to await Gustav’s unwelcome arrival somewhere to the West of New Orleans today, Rick was busy – and no, I’m not making this up - criticizing Barack Obama for “playing politics” with the storm.
“Look at what happened today — did Barack Obama attack John McCain or Sarah Palin?” Davis asked.
Told Obama had criticized McCain and Palin on the campaign trail over pay equity, Davis continued: “So he attacks us while there’s a hurricane going on and John McCain suspends his convention basically. What bigger contrast can you have about putting your country first?”
Perhaps more amazing was the way which the campaign press corps mutely stood there recording his words and image as if he had simply commented on the weather. He was referring, of course, to a campaign stop made by Obama and Joe Biden in Toledo. The Democratic nominee gave one of his standard stump speeches, then tossing in an employment-related jab at Sarah Palin.
She “seems like a very nice person,” he began, repeating remarks he’s made often since McCain announced her selection on Friday. “But I’ve got to say she’s opposed, like John McCain is, to equal pay for equal work. That doesn’t make sense to me.”
What gave these scenes their Twilight Zone quality was the fact that Davis delivered his address only hours after McCain’s appearance in Mississippi with Palin at his side. As I noted yesterday, not one member of the press paused to ask him why the Governor of Alaska and a Senator from Arizona had dragged a sizable Secret Service retinue and burgeoning campaign press cadre down into the middle of an area in the midst of preparations for a major hurricane and delivered a press conference. Given the four states in the hurricane’s potential path – Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama - there were four Governors and eight Senators available for such duties. Of the other 46 Governors and 92 Senators, none but McCain and Palin (only by coincidence, I’m sure, candidates for the Executive branch this fall) seemed to be inclined to clog up the proceedings in the storm’s path, unless Lieberman was lurking in the background off camera as usual. Obama and President Bush both opted to “get out of the way” of the process.
So essentially, Davis was pointing out that, while McCain and Palin used the approaching storm to demonstrate - on every camera which could be found -, exactly how they were “on top” of a situation which neither had any pressing business or authority to oversee, Obama should completely suspend his campaign lest he be seen as “using the storm” for politics. It will be interesting to see how well that sells with the public, regardless of how meekly the press accepted and reported it. Fortunately for the Gulf Coast, Gustav should be their only worry for a while, as Hanna is currently predicted to rake the Eastern coast of Florida before coming ashore somewhere near Georgia or South Carolina.
In closing, I would note that it probably seems like I’ve been doing an awful lot of slamming of Team McCain over the last 96 hours, but rest assured that I have not joined the masses of the Obama faithful. It’s simply a case of “The One” really not doing much to make any news since the end of the convention. In fact, the Toledo appearance is the only thing in the news feed about him since the Big Speech. (Which we already covered at length.) Conversely, McCain and Palin have been making all the news, and not much of it has happened to impress me. Rest assured, as soon as the Democratic nominee and his running mate get back to stuffing their sizable feet into their respective gullets, we’ll be bringing you the details.
The latest updates on Gustav offer both good and bad news.
The bad news is that the storm is moving more quickly than expected. The original track had the storm making landfall sometime tomorrow, but it now appears that impact could be sometime overnight. This means that the coastal areas are already getting the impact from the outer bands of the system.
However, by traveling more quickly over the Gulf, the storm had less time to gain energy and, as a result, it is no longer expected to reach Category 4. It is now anticipated to be a Level 3 storm at impact and will quickly drop down to Level 2.
Of course this is still a VERY powerful storm and there is a very good chance of significant damage in the New Orleans area, but with the much more effective evacuation process it is likely most of the loss will be material rather than human and that is an important distinction.
Still, we should all keep the people of the Gulf Coast in our thoughts and prayers.
100 PM CDT SUN AUG 31 2008…GUSTAV WEAKENS A LITTLE MORE…BUT STILL A MAJOR HURRICANE…
A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTHERN GULF COAST FROM CAMERON LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO THE ALABAMA-FLORIDA BORDER…INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. A
HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO
PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION.
and
AT 100 PM CDT…1800Z…THE CENTER OF HURRICANE GUSTAV WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 25.9 NORTH…LONGITUDE 86.6 WEST OR ABOUT 270 MILES…520 KM…SOUTHEAST OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
GUSTAV IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 17 MPH…28 KM/HR. THIS
GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE WITH A DECREASE IN FORWARD
SPEED DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. ON FORECAST TRACK…GUSTAV
SHOULD MAKE LANDFALL ON THE NORTHERN GULF COAST ON MONDAY.
and
AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM SURGE OF 12 TO 16 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDAL LEVELS IS EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER OF GUSTAV CROSSES THE NORTHERN GULF COAST.
Pardon the snarky headline, but today I witnessed something which may well have me heading for the fainting couch. Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama actually came out with a decision which was completely in step with the choice made by President George W. Bush and I was nodding my head in agreement with both of them. President Bush announced today that not only would he not be at the convention on Monday as planned, but would not be in New Orleans either. Choosing to stay out of the way of the anticipated relief efforts, he is heading home to Texas to coordinate with FEMA executives, the military and the leadership in the various Gulf States which will likely be affected.
Senator Barack Obama said that he had talked to the Louisiana governor and other officials. He added that he was monitoring the storm, but was planning no tour of the coast because he wanted to stay out of the way.
Bush apparently has learned his lesson from both Katrina and the 2004 Florida hurricane season. During Katrina, the president took mild criticism for flying over the affected areas in Air Force One, because any such air travel shuts down air lanes, no matter how pressing the need may be. In 2004, Bush took a photo op handing out food and water in the Sunshine State. The resulting chaos from his Secret Service entourage shut down traffic for hours and hindered relief efforts more than it helped.
By way of contrast, Senator John McCain and his presumptive running mate flew down to Mississippi to meet with various officials and hold press conferences highlighting everything they were doing in the face of this disaster. (One can only assume that the normal contingent of Secret Service and the throngs of press members were in tow.) We live in the era of the interwebs, cell phones, conference calls, teleconferences and 24 hour cable news services which will provide live video of everything happening on the ground 24/7. You lose nothing by not being there other than missing an opportunity for a press conference and photo opportunity.
I would also remind both Senators Obama and McCain that neither of you are currently the President. Nor are Palin or Biden the Vice President at this time. Louisiana and Mississippi both have fully-functional Governors and Senators in place to handle the impending possible crisis. It appears, at least at this time, that President Bush is on top of the situation, coordinating preparations and bracing for the storm as best as can be managed. Perhaps candidates for an election which is still over two months off should just get out of the way and let them do their jobs rather than turning this into a sideshow.
