This is from the White House Press Office’s Pool Report for Vice-President Biden’s trip to Columbus, Ohio (no Link).
VP was asked if it was relevant or even appropriate to discuss what Gov. Romney’s budget plan would mean for FEMA funding and disaster relief. “No, look. I think FEMA is doing incredible job. I wish you guys could have been on the phone with all of the governors. Uniformly they were incredibly grateful to [FEMA administrator Craig] Fugate and the president.
“So, this is working like it’s supposed to. FEMA has been reorganized. It’s doing one helluva a job. It prepositioned resources. The governors are all cooperating with one another. The mayors are cooperating. I’ve never in all my experience seen as much cooperation, and acknowledgement of that cooperation, from city, state, federal levels. So it’s working like it’s supposed to. And I’m really proud of our team, and I’m also proud of the way the governors have all stepped up with the mayors. Hearing the mayor of Philadelphia and the governor of Pennsylvania, two different parties, talking about the cooperation. Hearing Christie talk about the cooperation he has with the mayor of Newark.”
Even though Biden couldn’t help sending the jab at the Bush administration’s response to Katrina, his overall response to questions was to refuse to politicize the storm or to directly criticize Romney. Instead, he praised the bipartisan cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, and the job of FEMA and first responders and aid workers. Biden will hit the campaign trail tomorrow in Florida, but there is no word on when or whether the president will resume campaigning.
He doesn’t have to discuss Romney’s plan. I am surprised, pleasantly, that the press even asked him about it. However, the mere question points out by implication that Romney wants to destory FEMA as we know it and Biden’s response (without a gaffe even) is an emphatic endorsement of keeping FEMA just the way it is.
Maybe this will serve as a reminder to the populace, especially in places like Florida, that Big Government Programs really aren’t so bad when they have competent people running them. Kinda washes away some of the Republican argument just before an election, doesn’t it?
Kinda washes away some of the Republican argument just before an election, doesn’t it?
Indeed. Have any of the teabaggers claimed that Obama caused Sandy on purpose just for this reason yet?
These big government programs WORK when staffed (and more importantly, RUN) by competent people whose primary goal is to DO THEIR JOBS to the best of their abilities. Most Fed agencies have a LOT of very competent staff. But for those with appointed leaders, who that leader is makes a world of difference — and Democrats tend to appoint qualified, competent people to those posts. (see also President Clinton’s handling of the Red River flood out west during his admin….)
G.W. Bush’s record on that was pretty crappy — and I wouldn’t expect Romney’s to be better. (possibly worse)
I’ll stick with the guy who believes in hiring the best people for the job — because when you NEED an agency like FEMA, you need them to be on top of their game.
And indeed it is frosting on a good recipe cake that Heckuvajob Brownie is criticizing the Pres for ‘acting too fast’…
Apparently being a wingnut welfare talkshow host is above his pay grade too.
thursday. he’ll be in boulder for a rally, his third trip here this year.
the big dog’s going to be in denver and aurora tuesday…today or next unknown.
And of course, he will be criticized for campaigning when there are still power outages and he should personally be rewiring the whole Northeast.
I predicted yesterday that Romney’s team was going to attack-attack-attack Obama on the response to the storm. That may still come but Obama and his team have so far pre-empted that by delivering a terrific response. I see “heckuva job Brownie” – the disasterous hack who infested the FEMA director role under Bush – has criticized Obama for being TOO proactive, and trying to bring up Libya. Yes, that’s right.
Christie’s response is a slight bit of a surprise, but Christie, while a world class asshole, is not a modern wingnut but instead is an old style party-boss politician whose always looking out for #1. He certainly must realize that re-election campaigns are often won or lost on the politician’s reaction to unexpected disasters and he’s taking every advantage of this. Remember that both Mayor Daleys were widely acknowledged to be heavily corrupt but they also delivered services when they counted so were shoo-ins for re-election. So thanking Obama publically is not a surprise – he’s kissing up because he will continue to need help to address his state. Pissing on Romney, however, by saying “no we don’t have time for political stunts now” publically is a true surprise, but typical Christie. I suspect that HE knows the polls are not good for Romney.
So, given the Obama administration’s great performance so far Romney’s team is going to have to double down on their other strategies – lie about everything, invent new charges based on lies and count on the advertising money tidal wave that is coming this week.
For Obama this has helped his re-election campaign. Keep in mind that all those rallies the last weeks of the campaign don’t actually sway any voters or get any votes to the polls – their purpose is to get the candidate on the TV and give the impression that the candidate is working as hard as possible. I guarantee that Obama didn’t lose a single vote by cancelling his trip today to Colorado Springs, for example. So Obama loses nothing by cancelling the campaign events IF he replaces them with pictures of the president hard at work on a national crisis.
Biden was right to not explicitly bring up the FEMA budget comparisons – YET. But by Thursday surrogates need to be hammering this hard AND reminding people of Katrina. This is exactly the kind of event – and the President’s reaction – that you want in the minds of those few people who decide at the last minute.
Christie would rather run in 2016 than in 2020. And is smart enough to see the handwriting on the wall.
My NOLA peeps are gonna love this bullshhh.. from Michael Brown. This mofo who was head of GWB’s FEMA when Katrina drowned NOLA trying to knock Obama administration for responding TOO QUICKLY to Hurricane Sandy! WTF! Get out of here with that mess. Maybe if GWBush, and Nagin and Blancho woulda responded quicker to Katrina, so many lives including my damn grandmother would not have been lost!!!! This is the kinda stuff that really p*** me off!!!
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/10/30/1110901/bush-fema-director-katrina-hits-obama-sandy/
It’s the same thing we’ve seen with the Tea Party Congress: Republicans don’t believe in doing their jobs when it comes to the government. They believe in blocking the job from being done.
Hell, they believe blocking others from doing the job is their job.