Somebody screwed up in the Obama circle. He should have been on Air Force One first thing Friday morning. Instead he went to Texas to campaign.
What really matters is getting aid to a state that is in desperate shape right now. We had massive floods too around Pine Bluff Arkansas. 8 inches of rain in just one day. Federal Aid is needed to cleanup and rebuild.
Well, thank god for that. Getting down their first helped, uh, to do what, again?
Romney dashing off to Louisiana (why, exactly?) seems like a tacky move. He wants to draw more attention to what’s happening? Yeah, I’m sure. Has he been watching the news?
Campaigns live and die by the photo op. This time it’s Romney in the pics first.
Obama’s strategists should have anticipated this. Instead he’s in Texas campaigning.
Romney’s just there to ask the important questions. Like, “Did the water come from the sky, or the rivers, or the ocean?”
So in other words, some self-important guy who has * no official duties *, no skills in emergency management, and who isn’t going to be stacking any sandbags except in a purely symbolic way flew to Louisiana with his entourage and is now taking up officials’ valuable time that they could otherwise be using to handle the emergency. Is that what you’re saying?
Glad they could pull resources away from the people that need them just so Mittens can take a grip-n-grin for political purposes. He’s doing what there exactly?
Being there first (or second) does nothing to help those people. Being in charge of the federal response does. I’m more interested in how the feds help rather than what political candidates show up and how important they think they look.
I appreciate a great photo op just like a forward pass to the end zone. Doesn’t matter which team you support. A nice play has to be appreciated.
Modern elections are all about the sound bites and photo ops. Why else would candidates attend state fairs and eat hot dogs?
Oh no doubt ace, I’m sure Team Obama hates the current CNN Headline - anything that implies Obama is following Romney around is bad politics.
Choose a different metaphor. Football sucks, and there’s no such thing as a “nice play.”
Maybe Romney could put some people on top of his car and get them out of there. Now, that would be a photo op.
And, if Obama had made the effort the out-hustle Romney there, you’d be applauding, right? No cheap shots, no "he’s taking too much credit, politicizing, none of that, right?
I don’t believe he is that stupid. I refuse to believe he is that stupid. No. Not gonna, can’t make me, no. Just forget it, OK? It isn’t possible that a candidate for the most powerful single person in the fucking world can be that fucking stupid!!
Normally Obama’s campaign is a well oiled machine. Obama is the master of the photo op. Romney’s campaign is known for amateurish missteps. He made a bunch of publicized gaffes just a few weeks ago when he visited London and Israel before the Olympics.
It is funny to see the Obama campaign out foxed this one time. But, I think overall the Obama campaign will come out ahead on photo ops and sound bites. They’re pretty darn slick. That Hope campaign poster was pure genius in 2008.
Is Louisiana in play?
Considering some of the posts in this thread, Romney is taking a risk rushing there. He may come off as some sort of vulture if his opponents spin things right.
Out foxed. Yes, sure.
Do you remember when the 2008 financial crisis started and McCain suspended his campaign to deal with it and Obama didn’t? Do you remember how dumb McCain looked after that?
Louisana is a red state, a state that will certainly vote Romney, but they aren’t fucking stupid. There’s the President coming in, because he’s the goddamn President, and then there’s the guy who can accomplish fuck-all to improve the situation. Yeah, a real masterstroke.
Well, Obama campaigns during the Republican convention but doesn’t go to LA because the state is not in play. Then Romney beats him there. Remember how bad Bush looked for not going to NO after Katrina because it might “pull resources away from the people who might need them”?
That was my first thought when I saw Romney there tonight: where’s Obama? It has nothing to do with what they can do personally to help. Campaigns are a lot about optics, and in this case, Romney upstaged Obama.
Tonight on Charlie Rose, Tom Friedman mentioned something that’s been gnawing at the back of my mind for a few months: Obama isn’t running a very good campaign. Considering Romney’s image, Obama should be way ahead in the polls, but they’re too close for comfort. I hope he’s saving his best for last because if he isn’t, he could be in trouble.
You could equally argue that considering all the bad economic conditions, Obama “should” be way behind in the polls. Why does Thomas Friedman think one outlook is stronger than the other?