McCain's Hurricane Photo-Op - Where was McCain During Katrina? Compare with Obama

[Median Democrat]

John McCain in his effort to try to pretend he is president, decided to use his free time due to a cancelled fundraiser to go through a photo-op/briefing regarding Florida's preparations for an incoming hurricane. However, what is McCain's record in the most severe hurricane to his the U.S. in decades? What was John McCain doing as Hurricane Katrina made landfall? Yup, that is McCain presenting George Bush with a cake celebrating McCain's birthday.

Mother Jones: John McCain's Miserable Record on Hurricane Katrina

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/04/8059_john_mccains_mi.html

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/snip

But McCain's record on Hurricane Katrina suggests that he was part of the problem, not the solution. McCain was on Face the Nation on August 28, 2005, as Katrina gathered in the Gulf Coast. He said nothing about it. One day later, when Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, McCain was on a tarmac at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, greeting President Bush with a cake in celebration of McCain's 69th birthday. Three days later, with the levees already breached and New Orleans filling with water, McCain's office released a three-sentence statement urging Americans to support the victims of the hurricane.

Though McCain issued a statement the next week calling on Congress to make sacrifices in order to fund recovery efforts, he was quoted in The New Leader on September 1 cautioning against over-spending in support of Katrina's victims. "We also have to be concerned about future generations of Americans," he said. "We're going to end up with the highest deficit, probably, in the history of this country."

That attitude was borne out in McCain's actions and votes. Forty Senators and 100 members of Congress visited New Orleans before he did; he finally got there in March 2006. He voted against establishing a Congressional commission to examine the Federal, State, and local responses to Katrina in med-September 2005. He repeated that vote in 2006. He voted against allowing up to 52 weeks of unemployment benefits to people affected by the hurricane, and in 2006 voted against appropriating $109 billion in supplemental emergency funding, including $28 billion for hurricane relief

/snip

In contrast, what did Barack Obama do? A lot. Here is a nice list of Obama's actions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/when-the-cameras-are-off-barack-obamas-hurricane-katrina-record/

Also, here is Obama's comments in September 2005 ripping on George Bush's response:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu3C5Utrg84

Now, who would you rather have as President?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. McBush is so false

[Median Democrat]

3. Here is the (Bulls&*t) Story Re McCain's Briefing/Photo-Op

Notice the BS reference suggesting that McCain took a leadership role in criticizing the Bush administration's response. He did not even visit New Orleans until March of the next year. And they say the media is liberal? This is just complete bullshit.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hB0TnDbNmf96fKyd3pRdpskg3AmwD92KD6FO0

/snip

McCain gets briefing on Tropical Storm Fay
By PHILIP ELLIOTT – 2 hours ago

WINTER PARK, Fla. (AP) — John McCain on Sunday was briefed on Tropical Storm Fay, which scuttled a political fundraiser and is threatening to reach Florida as soon as Monday.

McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, visited the Orange County Emergency Operations Center near Orlando shortly after flying from Long Beach, Calif. Speaking to a pool of reporters, he was optimistic that local and federal officials will work together if the storm strikes.

"The good news is, obviously, no state is better prepared or organized to deal with whatever comes this way than the state of Florida," McCain told reporters after his briefing.

McCain said he hoped the storm wouldn't permanently hurt central Florida's tourism industry, which includes theme parks like Disney World and Universal Studios.

"You'll be in our thoughts and prayers. I am very impressed by what you're doing and what you're prepared to do. Coming from a state that is not often hit by a hurricane, I'm incredibly impressed," the Arizona senator told local officials.

McCain has long criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency's reaction to Hurricane Katrina, which inundated New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast, blaming poor leadership in the storm's aftermath.

/snip

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. keep this kicked!

[Erin Elizabeth]

2. Obama.

Katrina did something to me. It ripped me apart. Watching the indifference from the supposed leaders....well. I can't even put into words how I felt. I just suddenly knew in my heart of hearts that this was no longer America. I began to question whether it ever was. And that broke my heart.



Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold!
Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men!
Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!


--Langston Hughes

[KT2000]

4. Very impressive effort

on Obama's part. He needs to talk about this and compare to McCain.

Katrina has affected the psyche of everyone in this country. It was on tv 24/7 showing that our government does not give a damn. I bet many still harbor some insecurity and fear knowing that they would be treated the same way.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. Yes, Obama gets things done. McBush is nothing but a big fake.

[Cosmocat]

5. They HAVE to do commercial on this ...

it writes itself, and it would be devastating ..

Do the clip from him last year babbling on about "Katrina would never happen on my watch" ... Run clips from each day running up to the birthday event, Bush doing "heck of a job" and then the Bush/McCain hug ...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. I'm surprised DU hasn't put this to the top page?

this should be posted every day at DU!

[Median Democrat]

9. This Is Why This Election Is Tough - McCain Is Never Confronted With The Facts

While the Democrats always have to deal with GOP/Smear, Inc. and the lies generated by a biased corporate median and smear books that became popular during Bill Clinton's presidency. It is pretty much fill in the blank, and the GOP will smear the Democratic candidate, and make crap up. Of course, for this to work, you need a media that parrots the smears without any analysis while also ignoring John McCain's record.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. this needs to be drip-fed into all TV ads because it is the truth

[otohara]

10. Presidential Seal on His Birthday Cake?

what a suck-up!

[Quantess]

11. Thank you for posting this.

K & R

[Born_A_Truman]

12. Great ad potential

juxtapositioned with the birthday cake (putting the dates below so everyone knows), etc.



This is the leadership you want to continue?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

14. how is McCain's popularity in New Orleans?