Posted on 08/14/2004 9:35:01 AM PDT by technomage
An interesting conversation was on Fox News this morning. Stuart Varney (sp) mentioned that for the two months after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida the National GDP actually dropped. Then, when recovery efforts really kicked in, the national economy benefited. Many feel this drop was one of the reasons Bush I lost the election.
The monetary costs of Charley will probably get close to, or exceed, the 27 billion dollar price tag of Andrew. This may cause the national economy to stall before the rebuilding efforts start in earnest and trickle into the economy. Might not be soon enough.
Hopefully it will make those cowardly Democrats flee back to New York and Massachusetts where their votes won't matter as much.
Does exploding trailer parks help or hurt Bush?
I guess I should have been a bit clearer. I am not posting my thoughts, I am posting the thoughts of one of the regulars on FoxNews.
you are 100% correct. perot got 19% of the vote
The partisan media will do the rest anyway, no matter what Bush does.
I really doubt the Democrats see this situation as a positive for them. I've been looking at that NOAA map, and it looks to me like the eye of the Hurricane will pass directly over DNC Headquarters at 11:23 p.m. By midnight, our troubles could be over. |
In my local paper today, there is a completely unbiased news article from the AP explaining that Bush would be able to exploit this tragedy for his personal political gain, and that the Democrats had better be on guard.
Cheating,
Voting by the Dead,
Fraud,
cheating,
Voting by Criminals, illegal aliens,
Erasing the Military vote,
multiple voting,
cheating,
and Democratic lying (as usual).
Well, we all know without him even saying so, that If Kerry had been President he would have tied Florida to a swift boat and towed it out of danger.
I'll tell you one thing...hurricanes boost certain retail industries.
Plywood was flying off the shelf in Home Depots. Some Home Depots that weren't 24 hour stores were still staying open for 24 hours and they were shipping in plywood and supplies from other areas.
Florida merchants have gotten smarter at least as far as the retail industry that provides needed hurricane supplies, IMHO.
The grocery stores never ran out of bottled water, the home depots never ran out of plywood, the batteries seem to be in good supply, there was tape available.
A few years ago if there had been a hurricane threat, if you didn't get water and groceries a few days ahead...there wouldn't be any.
Also the hotel industry in central Florida must have done a huge business because of people fleeing inland from Tampa Bay.
As far as the Tampa Bay area, businesses closed up for 1/2 a day, so that is all the revenue that was lost.
President Bush should take time off from campaigning and visit the areas hit by Hurricane Charley. He should take with him (to the extent they are willing to go) the congressional leaders from both parties so that they can see the devastation first hand. (And, Kerry is not a congressional leader: he is merely a candidate who can go on campaigning or not as he pleases). Then President Bush should propose any additional emergency funding (beyond what is already available through FEMA, etc.) on a fast track. Such a bi-partisan approach will give him the high ground and leave it to the Democrats to play politics.
This may cause the national economy to stall before the rebuilding efforts start in earnest and trickle into the economy. Might not be soon enough.
Stewart Varney and Brian Wilson should shut up and do some research before they open their mouth and make all those doom and gloom scenarios about the effect of Hurricane Charley on the economy and the election.
I cannot believe the crap I am seeing on Foxnews lately. They are becoming as bad as CNN and MSNBC.
We cannot trust Foxnews anymore. We need to have a conservative cable network, period.
The media is simply moving the goal posts up in time.
Thank God! I've been hoping we would get out of Europe!
Not another penny, for a euro...Bring the boys home!
Kerry can't find Cambodia either.
Bush forces hurricane Charley into Florida!
Commits political suicide!
Yes, this is Bush's chance to be a hero, and I'm certain he WILL do everything in his power to help FLA, but in the past he's shown he's the anti-Clinton and doesn't charge in to disaster areas for photo-ops on the grounds that the last thing such areas need at that point is the security/ media nightmare that accompanies him. (IIRC, he didn't show at the Texas floods, shuttle disaster or western wildfire scenes until weeks after the events, and often did only in fly-overs with press confrences held outside the actual damage scenes.) He may break that pattern this time, but don't be surprised if he doesn't. That's not all bad... anger and resentment ran VERY high in OKC when Clinton shut down everything so he could come bite his lip at the F5 tornado scene, and you KNOW the media would put a negative spin on "Bush not in FLA because he cares about the people, he's just buying votes with aid money".
You hit that one right on the head!
President Bush is visiting the hard hit areas in Florida tomorrow morning, Sunday August 15th 2004.
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