Shit.
I just turned on the news only to see major storm hysteria on both major news networks.
One week before the election.
I don’t mean to deny the serious nature of this hurricane. But consider the timing. This storm — which Fox just called “the Mega-Storm of 2012” –is shaping up to become the major issue of the next week, which means it cannot help but be on many people’s minds as they vote. Without getting into speculations about which candidate might be most helped or most hurt, for God’s sake, are there not more important issues which have been facing the country over the last four years, and which will face the country over the next four years? I hate to say “I told you so,” but I think it would be very ill-advised to allow an election to be decided by a storm.
The storm will go away. But the election issues remain.
MORE: This Drudge headline intrigued me:
‘People Are Going To Be Fighting In The Streets Over Gasoline, Food’…
Wanting to know more, I clicked the link. Sure enough, the CBS headline says this:
Resident Warns People Will Be ‘Fighting In The Streets’ For Gas, Food In Sandy Wake
The source is the owner of a bait and tackle shop, who is quoting an unnamed friend:
“I think this one’s going to do us in,” said Mark Palazzolo, who boarded up his bait-and-tackle shop in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., with the same wood he used in past storms, crossing out the names of Hurricanes Isaac and Irene and spray-painting “Sandy” next to them.
“I got a call from a friend of mine from Florida last night who said, ‘Mark, get out! If it’s not the storm, it’ll be the aftermath. People are going to be fighting in the streets over gasoline and food.’”
President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney called off their campaign events at the very height of the presidential race, with just over a week to go before Election Day. And early voting was canceled Monday in Maryland and Washington, D.C.
OK, so let me get this straight. The opinion of an unnamed friend — in Florida — of the owner of a New Jersey bait and tackle shop is good for a CBS headline?
The Florida man might turn out to be right, but he might not. I just don’t see how such an opinion merits a headline. I think there is so much boy-crying-wolf going on that it is impossible whether or when there is a real emergency.
UPDATE: My thanks to Sarah Hoyt (blogging at Instapundit) for the link. “Four years, one storm” pretty much says it all.
A warm welcome to all. Comments welcome.
I am told that this storm is helping Barack Obama in the polls. CNN is running endless footage of flooded subways and the like which seem to cry out for government help. Might that be it?
Is the moral lesson supposed to be that the storm is a cry for more government?
Well, at least this storm struck New York. (We’ll see whether the next few days is enough time for the activists there to overplay their hand, and politicize the disaster…)
BOTTOM LINE: What has to be remembered is that this will be seen as a major political opportunity. A perfect distraction at a perfect time for the “never let a crisis go to waste” set.
Any idea what makes people so fickle?
Comments
10 responses to “The storm before the storm?”
[…] FOUR YEARS, ONE STORM. EYES ON THE BALL: The storm before the storm? […]
This could make the ground game tougher for the party with all the dead people that need to be dug up to vote.
This is the ugly truth: It depends on how hungry the survivors get; Will power, like
muscle power, requires fuel and is subject
to fatigue brought on by overuse. Glucose
levels fall, toxins rise, and the baser
impulses break free of control.
A survivor of the D.C. Derecho of June ’12
said that by the time things got back to
normal, the first signs of decivilization
were starting to appear; Less than a week.
No one questions government’s role following such widespread disaster but much of the cleanup work will be done by home and businesses plus their friends at neighbors; at least that was my experience on Long Island following Gloria (1985) where we lived on a treed lot near the water.
And lets not forget that it has been governments permitted building in flood zones and who created a flood insurance scheme to help those flooded. Sandy’s destruction was made many fold worse by such policies.
Will it effect the election? Possibly. But the battleground states were largely unaffected. So long as I can hold a hammer, man a chain saw and work a winch I and my neighbors will be long at work before anyone from FEMA or the state ever shows up. And that’s how it should be.
If Obama hasn’t managed to act Presidential over the last four years, what makes anyone think he’ll act Presidential now? He’ll go small again.
Yeah, but the storm will fade. The stench of Benghazi continues to worsen. #OccupyResoluteDesk really doesn’t want to win next Tuesday, because the albatross is a fat lady in feathers.
On the plus side the majority of the states affected are already in the O column so little change will occur on the electoral college front. Happy Swimming east coast.
Smitty thanks for stopping by. I do hope you’re right, as the timing gives me the heebie jeebies.
Probably a wash –
Obama favors:
–Gets to look presidential.
–People needing government all of sudden.
–Diverts attention from a flailing campaign, Benghazi, etc.
Romney favors:
–It’s all Obama territory affected.
–In a time when so many are saying “wrong track” about the US, this event cannot help, even subconsciously, even though no one will blame Obama personally. (i.e. Americans appreciate “lucky” presidents… Is Obama one?
–Americans see a deadly life-and-death situation, and then see Obama as our leader for it. Hmmmmmmm……
–Romney, if handling it deftly (which he has so far), can “campaign” in the battlegrounds still while Obama cannot.
So, basically a wash.
The Perfect Storm is the Perfect Excuse for the Left Stream Media to take the deaths at Benghazi out of the news.