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.
Even if I grant the thesis that GDP will be reduced, by the time the effect is felt, the election will be over.
Economics in polls are usually trailing indicators. Witness the recovery that began in 1992 but came "too late" for Bush 41.
The insurance companies' stock may be hurt but that will not affect the local economies.
The debris remained on the streets for many many months. You can bet that this governor will have the debris removed immediately. He has not forgotten those pictures of Andrew.
Yes, and the Bushies will make sure that FL gets extraordinarily good service and benefits. I was in FL after Andrew. People got on with their lives right away. Meanwhile, over at AOL, "victims" of Jeb are beginning to complain that it's his fault they got slammed because he made the wrong call on hurricane touchdown point. Democrats!
I live in Homestead Florida. Charley was a larger storm with a wider area of destruction. While I don't know if the death count will go past the actual number of Andrew deaths, the path of destruction is larger than Andrew caused.
come on, this could cinch it for him, if he handles it right!
he needs to pull out the stops, use the incumbency and be as opportunistic as possible in the next few weeks. win the votes of all the floridians he can by doing a "rudy."
But I wonder whether it was a more populated area. All of Miami was a mess after Andrew.
Wonder if the poster lived in Homestead during the hurricane?
The main idea I am advancing is not merely that President Bush go to Florida (that is a given), but that he take congessional leaders with him (which isolates Kerry who is not in the Senate Democrat leadership)to limit the "political opportunism" cries already being advanced by some MSM, and to position his administration to fast track additional aid if needed, thereby showing his leadership and forcing the Democrats to either go along or be subject to charges of obstructionism.
"SEATTLE - President Bush will head to Florida tomorrow to look at the damage from Hurricane Charley."
...nevermind everything I just said... ;)
By being able to pump in massive amounts of aid to the state, Bush can win over the sheeple who want something for nothing.
Not to be heartless, but I travel all throughout Florida.
Anyone who builds a house right on the beach deserves what they get.
And after the storm is gone they will build back in the same place on the same beach and your tax dollars will pay for it. have a nice day.
No he will not lose because of this. If he reaches out and takes care of the people, he'll win again.
They're just making up some wild-a$$ garbage to see if they can gin up any interest in the TV show, for cryin' out loud. It's meaningless, inane and stupid -- just like about everything on TV. They want to suck in viewers so they throw a wild theory out there in the hopes it will be dramatic enough to get someone to watch. It's just about all the media does these days.
The largest path of destruction from Andrew occured over Florida City, Homestead and Naranja. Miami and even up into Broward county sustained damage but nowhere to the extent that we did down here.
After Andrew it was always said, Thank God it didn't hit Miami directly. The same that is being said now, about Charley not hitting Tampa.
Diasters tend to make the president look good. Clinton was rescued by Oklahoma City, according to his own people. (I have some thoughts about that!)
I think W. will work hard to help out the state, regardless of its role in his re-election. I wish he would get more sleep. He often looked frazzled. That is not good.
Kerry announced another vacation. Between the hurricane in Florida and the her-a-cane in New Jersey, he can't rent a headline. Besides, he tuckers out easily. Kerry will continue to lose momentum and duck Cambodia, NJ, etc.
Women and minorities hardest hit by this stupidity.
Yeah .. I do too.
After "Andrew" the state mobilized and as the FEMA guy has said several times already on TV .. he is stunned by the organization the Gov. has put together. To me this means that it will not take as long to recover.
And .. when the President shows up and starts talking with the people and hugging them and being Presidential with them .. there may be some who will vote for him who might not have bothered to vote.
I don't see this as bad for the President at all.
While it might cause a blip in the economy, which the democrats will no doubt take advantage of .. the dems have worse problems with their candidate and they are going to be busy trying to fend off John O'Neill's truth.
When it happened I put together a spreadsheet to see how many of Perot voters would have had to vote for Bush. It would have taken a 2/3 vote for Bush and 1/3 vote for Clinton to get a win for Bush. I don't remember any polls that suggested the split would have been close to that big.
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