On Day One of the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities, John McCain caught a break. Hurricane Gustav blew away the twin masters of disasters, President Bush and Vice President Cheney who were scheduled to speak. Instead, they are somewhere doing penance for their botched response to Hurricane Katrina.
McCain moved quickly to distance himself from Bush. In addition to visiting Mississippi, he scaled back the convention schedule. In a conference call with reporters, Campaign Manager Rick Davis outlined efforts to raise funds for charitable organizations in the five Gulf states, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The McCain campaign has established the Affected States Working Group to regularly brief delegates and coordinate assistance to the Gulf Coast.
A hurricane relief center has been set up inside the Xcel Center. Delegates and convention volunteers will assemble and send 80,000 “comfort packages” to affected residents.
Within hours of the briefing, McCain probably could have used a shot of Southern Comfort. Sarah Palin’s fairy tale entrance on the national stage is turning into a soap opera.
With the announcement that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant, we now know that Juno, the hit movie about a teenager coping with an unplanned pregnancy, could have been filmed in Juneau, Alaska, the state capitol. Talk about a hot ghetto mess.
I don’t think the mistakes of the daughter should be visited upon the mother. But as ABC News’ Jake Tapper asks:
What would the response be if Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and his wife Michelle had a pregnant unmarried teenage daughter?
Do we even have to ask?
