In an unbelievably cynical pandering move, John McCain and his running mate are heading to Mississippi. Apparently, McCain is convinced that getting under foot and in the way while real emergency personnel are getting ready for the storm will make the entire world forget that while New Orleans was drowning, he was yucking it up with the current occupant.
The presumptive republican nominee is acutely aware of the political damage that the republican party suffered after the feeble and inept response to Katrina, which made landfall three years ago on his 69th birthday.
McCain, who is scheduled to accept his party's nomination Thursday night, said that holding the convention while residents of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are suffering would be insensitive. "I'm afraid . . . that we may have to look at that situation, and we'll try to monitor it," he told Fox News in an interview to be aired Sunday. "But, you know, it just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near-tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster. So we're monitoring it from day to day."
A campaign spokeswoman said she does not think the trip will impede on hurricane preparations. "I'm sure that if Governor [Haley] Barbour thought Senator McCain and Governor Palin's presence would in any way distract from the important work they're doing in advance of the storm, he wouldn't have invited them," Jill Hazelbaker said, describing the running mates as "deeply concerned" about residents of the region.
I don't buy it. Their trip to Mississippi is pure political cynicism at it's craven and opportunistic worst.
McCain never even bothered to visit the region until he had secured the nomination and came under scrutiny for his failure to do so. At the time, McCain was attacking Obama for not flying off to Iraq every few weeks for a dog-and-pony show, when someone thought to check McSame's domestic record and pointed out that he had been AWOL in New Orleans. Obama, by contrast, had visited the region five times.
Mapquest says it is only 1089.87 miles between Washington DC and New Orleans, and it is not necessary for a visiting potentate to be escorted on a stroll by a full company of armed soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters and two apache gunships to make sure the potentate stays safe. And by not monkeywrenching operations in a war zone six soldiers didn't get dead on any of the five trips that Obama has made to New Orleans.
Not only was McSame aWol in NOLA until he was shamed into showing up, he has failed to vote for reconstruction because it might saddle the future with debt, yet the old hypocrite supports the occupation of Iraq - the single biggest expense and burden upon the backs of our grandchildren - without fail.
