By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
A week for the record books, you say? The October Surprise that shook a nation, minimized Halloween and reinforced climate change as the challenge of our lifetime was a new breed of superstorm. We all knew the tension would get thicker as November neared, but few of us were expecting flooded subways and scoured beach fronts, rising death tolls and neighborhoods burned to water-level. These events seem to happen too often these days, reminding us of other similar tragedies, but each disaster offers its own challenges and its own instruction. Still, as dreadful as they are, they bring out our innate sense of brother/sisterhood, our concern for one another in emergency. They stir us to compassion. They open our hearts.
This climate disaster, covered maniacally by everyone but FOX, rightfully absorbed our attention last week and distracted us from end-game campaign burn-out with shock and adrenal-overload. Newscasters of every ilk took turns wearing rain gear, getting pelted by debris in hurricane winds or knocked over into surging surf. You’ve evidently got to have a terrific immune system if you want to be a news anchor. These are the kinds of disasters we can’t look away from, even when painful to watch. It was, and most of us did.
Obama pulled back from his campaign, staying home to deal with the logistics of national emergency, while Romney used his time to dodge questions about his goal to privatize FEMA — a plan Krugman calls “pathological” — while making a stop for photo ops at an Ohio food bank with cans of soup, granola bars and diapers (hastily purchased by staff at a local Wal-Mart). Perhaps this is a preview of disaster policy under his lead, the kind of hit-or-miss private charity that cannot hope to provide for critical events. Frankly, with the wealth of Midas at his disposal, Mitt could afford to cut a check and never miss it. At least that would have been worthy of the photo.