Sandy's Coup de Gras for Obama

By Alan Caruba

Remember how Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath was blamed on President Bush? Remember his words to then-FEMA director, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”?

No doubt FEMA is all geared up for the damage Hurricane Sandy will do throughout the Northeast and wide swatches to the West. And no doubt it will be the States and local communities and utilities that will do the heavy lifting as FEMA tries to give the appearance of doing anything useful.

All of which is bad news—actually more bad news—for President Obama who, insanely campaigning, flew to Orlando, Florida on Sunday and then immediately flew back to Washington, DC, without leaving the airport. Just how much did that little round-trip cost the taxpayers? How stupid and indifferent does one have to be to leave Washington as a major hurricane is bearing down on the Northeast’s coasts?

The good news is that the storm has closed down Washington and, for all intents and purposes, the federal government. New York City, too, is a ghost town as everyone hunkers down. The bad news for Obama is that he is likely be blamed for whatever occurs in the wake of the hurricane because that’s what we do.

Katrina was especially damaging because it was a category 5 hurricane and Hurricane Sandy as of this writing early Monday morning is still a category 1 and likely to be downgraded to a tropical storm as it moves over land. New Orleans, built in a bowl below sea level, was a disaster waiting to happen.

Since Obama’s response to such events is to get on television and read his Tele-Prompter, it will remind people of his penchant for giving speeches instead of actually producing results. His lack of candor—his lies—regarding Benghazi-gate is, for him, the perfect storm.

If the hurricane costs him votes, that will be good for America.

When the Des Moines Register that hasn’t endorsed a Republican for President in forty years endorses Mitt Romney, you know Obama is in trouble and other mainstream daily newspapers are endorsing Romney.

And if FEMA fumbles around as it has in the past that is likely to finish him off.

Hurricanes are a force majeure, acts of nature that should remind us that we do not control nature and can only clean up the mess afterword.

This writer has endured any number of hurricanes when I lived in Florida and countless storms and blizzards in my home state of New Jersey. I am very impressed with the way local authorities have responded at this point. As always, the closer government is to the people, the better it functions.

A huge, bloated central government was the last thing the Founding Fathers had in mind and that’s why the Constitution puts limits on the federal government it created. The Tenth Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

Time to reduce the national debt.

Time to reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Time to rebuild our military.

Time to rid ourselves of the Environmental Protection Agency before it destroys our economy.

Time to replace the Federal Reserve, famous for plunging the U.S. into one recession after another.

Time to get back to the fundamentals.

Time to rid ourselves of the nation’s first Marxist President.

© Alan Caruba, 2012