Gustav and the GOP convention
Posted: Monday, September 01, 2008 9:13 AM by Mark Murray
The Minneapolis Star Tribune front-pages: “The Republican National Convention was thrown into turmoil Sunday as Hurricane Gustav approached the Gulf Coast, threatening a disaster that forced party organizers to rewrite long-held plans on the fly and all but cancel political speechmaking and celebrations. Facing a potential reprise of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and severely damaged an unprepared Bush White House, Republicans scrambled to develop the appropriate response to the potential destruction looming again.”
“Ariz. Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, visited the Gulf briefly and instructed convention organizers to suspend all but essential business on the opening day of the convention and turn many of the gathering's planned festivities into fundraisers for potential victims of the storm. ‘Ahead of time, I want to thank all my fellow Republicans as we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats,’ McCain said via live video feed from St. Louis, where he had just returned from a briefing with Gulf State governors hosted by Mississippi's Gov. Haley Barbour.”
The New York Times writes about the political risks and rewards of canceling the first night of the convention. ‘In some ways, it was a nightmare moment for Republicans. The hurricane’s approach put front and center once more some of the worst failings of the Bush presidency at the very moment Mr. McCain was to begin presenting a vision of the post-Bush Republican Party to the nation. With television tracking the storm’s approach and showing images of an emptying New Orleans, it was hard for voters to escape reminders of how Mr. Bush had emerged from Hurricane Katrina severely wounded by judgments of incompetence and lack of empathy.”
“But rather than run away from the hurricane and its political risks, Mr. McCain ran toward it. He hustled on Sunday to Mississippi to make an appearance there, an unmistakable contrast to Mr. Bush, who flew over New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina but did not set foot in the region until four days after landfall. And Mr. McCain appeared on television with a semi-presidential bearing, briefing Americans on emergency preparations and calling on the nation to put aside partisanship.”
The Washington Post’s Dan Balz: “Gustav has disrupted McCain's convention, but the storm also presents the candidate with an opportunity to show that he would be a different kind of president than Bush. His decisions to fly to Mississippi on Sunday for a pre-storm assessment and then to radically redraw the agenda for the convention's opening night until it is clear what might happen with the storm send a message that some top Republicans believe will serve him well in the campaign ahead against Obama.”
The New York Daily News: "For the Bush White House and Republicans in general, Gustav serves as a bitter reminder of its catastrophically incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and a swath of the Gulf Coast three years ago."
The Boston Globe adds, "The sudden change appears to be without parallel in American politics. While it may deprive the Republicans a major showcase for the party's nominees in the November, it also provides McCain an opportunity to lead his party during a national humanitarian effort."
