NYT: "Rather than run away from the hurricane, McCain ran toward it with semi-presidential bearing" [View All]

Storm politics present risks and rewards

Failings of Bush presidency recalled just as McCain's big moment arrives



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26492165/

By PETER BAKER
updated 6:29 a.m. PT, Mon., Sept. 1, 2008

ST. PAUL - On the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall three years ago, President Bush helped Senator John McCain celebrate his birthday with a cake that melted on a blazing hot airport tarmac, just as the president’s approval ratings would in the weeks to come.

This time around, the party’s off. Or at least it is for Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, who on Sunday sought to focus attention on efforts to prepare for Hurricane Gustav at the expense of carefully laid plans for this week’s Republican National 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.