With luck I'll be able to say "arriba-derci" (an Hispanic Italian happy goodbye) to him soon -- perhaps about the time you grow up.
I'm still not sold on Presidents having to monitor hurricanes real-time in Washington. This almost seems like the kind of thing the NWS, DHS undersecretary and maybe some designated regional military commanders would legitimately be responsible for. Seems like the first I heard of it was Bush during Rita.
You are absolutely correct, sir. I completely blanked out on the Hatch Act of 1939, which goes out of its way to forbid the Secretary of State from campaigning for the President. Good catch!
It is smart, but also expected. Romney cannot be seen out there bashing the president, while Obama does all he can with his presidential powers to ease the pain of suffering people. In addition, I think this "campaign free zone" will last for a few days, depending how bad is the situation in those affected states.
Not that it should be any surprise that the President has his priorities in line on the storm response, but it's good to see Gov. Christie acknowledging the essential role that the Federal government is playing in emergency response. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_...ama-deserves-great-credit-for-storm-response/ Gov. Christie: Obama deserves "great credit" for storm response CBS News) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke to "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which made landfall near Atlantic City, N.J. and wreaked havoc statewide. "The state of New Jersey took it in the neck worse than any other state," Christie said of the storm's effects. "It's going to take us a while to dig out from under it, but we will dig out from under it," he added. Christie called the level of cooperation between the local, state and federal governments "excellent" and praised President Obama's involvement. "I was on the phone for the third time yesterday, last night, with the president of the United States. He called me at midnight last night as he was seeing reports," he said before adding that President Obama accelerated the designation of New Jersey as a major disaster area "without the usual red tape." "The cooperation has been great with FEMA here on the ground and the cooperation from the president of the United States has been outstanding. He deserves great credit," Christie added. Coastal flooding trapped residents and damaged homes and businesses in southern New Jersey and flooding and power loss impacted the entire state. The city of Newark, was left entirely without power according to Christie, who said the storm was much worse than Hurricane Irene in 2011. The governor hopes that winds will subside by Tuesday afternoon to allow him to assess the damage to the shore and northern part of the state by helicopter. Christie also addressed the criticism he unleashed on Atlantic City mayor Lorenzo Langford on Monday, saying that he stood by his comments that the mayor jeopardized the lives of Atlantic City residents by sending mixed messages about evacuation. According to Christie, "the mayor told folks they could shelter in city shelters as a last resort" even after the governor's office sent 75 New Jersey transit buses to take residents out of the city. "We knew this was a real potential problem and I always err on the side of saving lives," Christie explained. He added that both he and the mayor knew the storm was tracking to land "very close to Atlantic City with unprecedented power" and said, "I don't know why he did what he did." While Christie remains upset about the mayor's actions, he said he is more concerned for the residents trapped in Atlantic City and hopes that the more than a dozen urban search and rescue teams across his state will help alleviate the situation there.
Considering big storms like this are multi-state disasters requiring resources from several agencies both military and civilian it makes sense to me that the C In C and Chief Executive would be monitoring the situation.
Christie throws Romney under the bus: I'm guessing that, at least for today, Christie doesn't share Romney's notion that disasters should be handled by private enterprise.
But, but, but... the private sector could do it more efficiently. As long as the government is helping people who aren't me, I'm not free.
It's as if Earth was asking the election to give two craps about the climate. Oh well. We have record-setting carbon-extractor versus he-who-would-be record-setting-carbon-extractor.
Gov. Christie disagree with you. In several appearances on morning news programs on Tuesday, Mr. Christie went out of his way to thank the president personally, in addition to praising the operation of the federal government and its response teams. “It’s been very good working with the president,” Mr. Christie said on the “Morning Joe” program on MSNBC. “He and his administration have been coordinating with us. It’s been wonderful.” Speaking about the damage to his state on the “Today” show on NBC, Mr. Christie called the president “outstanding” and said the response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency had been “excellent.” In a Twitter message from his official account, Mr. Christie said he wanted to “thank the president personally for all his assistance as we recover from the storm.” http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...christie-breaks-from-attacks-to-praise-obama/
I would say poor basso, but I'm more concerned about his and his family's well-being right now. But reading that can't be good for his.
Christie is a very interesting guy. He just eviscerated Romney, although I don't know how many people will notice.
I've been very impressed with Christie over all of this. He's been great and has been very eloquent about how the president has responded. Basically telling anyone trying to politicize the storm to piss off.
Yep. His positions are absurd and his actions today are exactly the wrong message. First responders are going to be be dealing with a myriad of issues over the next few days. Trying to find a place to store truck loads of canned goods and distribute them equitably to people who may be without electricity and natural gas (or even can openers) shouldn't be one. It's a natural disaster, not a soup kitchen. Different circumstances, different needs. Hey Romney, you want to help? Pay your fair share of taxes and get out of the way.
I watched video of the event and it looked just like a campaign rally. The guy simply doesn't get it. It's a little frightening when you consider what office he's running for.
