Nature is currently trying to kick the shit out of an entire half of the country, and it’s time for the big question:
1) Will Mitt Romney’s momentum be stopped?
It’s hard to see how the storm helps. The Republican nominee has more than closed the gap with the incumbent over the final weeks of the campaign, taking a slim lead in most national polls. But his national boost hasn’t been mirrored in two pivotal states: Ohio and Virginia. Already Romney had to scrap a full day’s worth of events in Virginia Sunday.
Obama has had to change his schedule, too, but he’s not the one trying to make up ground.
And even though there are multiple schools of thought on how Sandy could affect voters’ feelings about the candidates or the nuts and bolts of getting folks to turn out, it’s still hard to see how the storm could help Romney. That is, unless the government botches the response and voters blame Obama.
Let’s be clear about this: If government botches the response, voters should blame Obama. Also, please kill me quickly. It’s hard to see how the storm would help Romney? That’s because THE STORM ISN’T ABOUT ROMNEY. It’s about how lots of people are getting their asses kicked and New York is going full zombie apocalypse and we have long lists of folks who are basically being reduced to Little House on the Prairie-style living for who knows how the fuck long. But hey, don’t let’s let that interfere with your need to make everything about OMFG HORSE RACE!
Speaking of which:
2) Does Obama have a natural advantage because he’s president?
It is so rude of Hurricane Sandy to make Obama look good by being in a particular chair at this particular time. So unfair to Republicans.
The short answer: yes. The longer answer: not if he makes an unforced error. While George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina ranks among the worst blunders in modern presidential history, it has also ensured that no president or candidate will under-react to the threat of a devastating natural disaster.
SO IT WAS A WIN, AFTER ALL. That Politico, always finding a silver lining in some dead people. I bet they’re super-glad they’re dead if it gave politicians the wake-up call they needed to realize that making sure people stay alive is the number-one job of fucking government.
5) Does this throw a wrench into Obama’s vaunted ground game?
Maybe.
Well, that clears that up. I’m so pleased we have learned political authority figures to tell us what we need to know.
You know whose “vaunted ground game” this storm throws a wrench into? (How does one exactly throw a wrench into a game? I mean, do you just fling it out on the basketball court or …)The entirety of Atlantic City:
It’s like nothing exists except as holograms in the goddamn TV studio. What’s really fucking depressing? The most grown-up person in this entire story is Mitt Fucking Romney:
“Governor Romney’s concern is the safety and well-being of those in the path of this storm, not political considerations,” said Andrea Saul.
Silly Andrea. That’s not how you WIN THE MORNING AND THE AFTERNOON.
A.