I live in Houston. My family and I spent a lot of time today preparing for tomorrow’s expected arrival of hurricane Ike. It’s a big one — about the size of Gustav.
It occurred to us today that President Bush wasn’t in our region helping coordinate the federal government’s rescue efforts. That seemed strange since he was just in Austin a couple of weeks ago in preparation for hurricane Gustav’s arrival in Louisiana.
What’s ironic about all of this is that as Gustav approached New Orleans, the Republican National Convention was starting in St. Paul, Minnesota.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney cancelled their scheduled appearances at the convention so that they could focus their attention on disaster preparation. Here’s First Lady Laura Bush at the convention offering her apologies for the President’s absence:
Like many of you, the President and I were preparing to come to Minnesota together to enjoy a convention experience that would nominate John McCain and Sarah Palin to be our next President and Vice President of the United States.
But as we all know, events in the Gulf Coast region have changed the focus of our attention.
Our first priority for today is to ensure the safety and well-being of those living in the Gulf Coast region. And to all of those living in the Gulf States, please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you.
The effect of Hurricane Gustav is just now being measured.
When such events occur, we are reminded that first, we are all Americans – and that our shared
American ideals will always transcend political parties and partisanship.
We hope that the people on the Gulf Coast know that the American people are here to do what we can to assist them. President Bush has been speaking with officials in the region to make sure they have what they need from the federal government. And today he visited the emergency operations center in Austin, which is helping to coordinate efforts among federal, state and local officials.
Here he is at that operations center in Austin:
Some cynically suggested at the time that the Republicans were using the approaching hurricane as an excuse to keep the unpopular leader of their party — from whom their nominee has spent a considerable amount of time distancing himself — from being seen with them. Here’s a typical quote from the liberal media:
[T]he hurricane gave the McCain camp something it could hardly have hoped for a few days ago: a reason to cancel Bush’s speech on the opening day of the party’s coronation of his successor. The President, with favorability ratings stuck below 30% for months, may be popular in the convention hall with loyal GOP soldiers. But with the Democrats doing everything they can to paint McCain’s candidacy as a third term of Bush, the President is the last person McCain wants as the party’s face going into the fall campaign.
Very odd that now that he doesn’t have a convention to miss Bush isn’t in our neighborhood helping coordinate the federal government’s response.
