McCain's Gustav Gamble

McCain is playing the possible national
disaster of hurricane Gustav to his
advantage. In the first place, it has
taken the eye off of Palin which would
have been dominating the news. In addition,
he apparently won't have a very unpopular
President to deal with at the Convention,
let alone Cheney.Those rubs won't be there.
It would have been interesting to see Bush
speaking at the Convention today with his
blunders of Katrina being repeated over and
over. Gustav has given a great bonus just
with these two concerns to McCain.

Yesterday, Sunday, Mississippi Governor Barbour,
played a political card and invited McCain-
Palin to FEMA HQ here in Jackson. Great free
TV and press exposure as McCain announces that
it is "Country First". Barbour gave him a
briefing on the storm's status; Jackson is a
regional center for FEMA and it was connected
by video with Bush in D.C. They all patted
themselves on the back for how prepared they
are. Interestingly, Palin was kept in the
background and did not speak. Have to keep
in mind McCain has a leg up on support as MS,
AL, LA, and TX all have Republican governors.

Now, word is coming out that McCain will further
use the impact of Gustav to his advantage in the
presidential election. It is rumored that he
will not appear in person at the Convention to
accept his nomination, but give his acceptance
speech somewhere down here in the South. It will
show he is putting "Country First" over politics
as usual. McCain says, "I pledge...we'll act
as Americans, not Republicans."

Lets remember back three years ago when Katrina hit.
These 'twins', Bush and McCain, were in Phoenix
clelebrating McCain's birthday and posing together
with a big birthday cake. Bush then went on the
California for a fund raising event. Here we have
Gustav evoking memories of all those Katrina
events and the maligned response as Bush and McCain
partyed. Does this complete the circle for Bush
and McCain? How will the electorate view this
circle, a Republican scandal evoking unforgiveable
consequences of over 1600 death or of repetence and
that they learned from their ignoring of a national
disaster?

ADDENDUM: Three years ago with Katrina, here in
Jackson we had wind gusts of 70 mph. Our neighborhood
was without power for 3 days in mid-90s and 100%
humidity. We and our neighbors had a lot of wind
damage as in trees falling on houses and cars and
the loss of roofing shingles. This time around
the forcast is for an inch of rain and only 30 mph
gusts. Hopefully, except for some flooding maybe,
we will dodge Gustav. Jackson has had a hugh
emigration of people from New Orleans area. There
is no room in any inn here. The Red Cross has
opened a large number of shelters to care for the
homeless. Gas prices spiked Thursday, and it was
that great Ohio Corportation, Kroger, that started
the price gouging at the pump. Went up .30cents
in an hour. The Attorney General, a Democrat,
stepped in and told Kroger they were under investigation.
Prices have held since then. Can you believe Kroger
would use such a tactic in a time of crisis to increase
their cash flow and to take advantage of a national
disaster?