Well, it's certainly been a heckuva week, Brownie...let's see what we missed for Sandy.
1) A few election notes:
- The WaPo is all but calling the election for Obama. This puts them several steps behind Newt Gingrich, who IS calling it for Obama.
- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is endorsing Obama, citing his stance on global warming and his response to Sandy. This will help Obama a little with independent voters who are independent and socially moderate. The right-wing joking about Obama lowering sea levels sure rings hollow about now. One can only hope this emboldens Obama on this issue for his second term.
- Chris Christie's all-but endorsement of Obama will have more impact, I think. And no, that wasn't a weight joke.
- Richard Mourdock, the Indiana Teabagger running for Senate, slipped badly in the polls. Rape is rape, Republicans.
- Finally, to the credit of both candidates, neither has made commercials about the Sandy crisis and the federal government response. More credit to Obama for keeping politics completely out of it, less to Romney for being a front-running opportunistic asshole.
2) I know the World Series ended. I think the Giants swept.
3) Speaking of sports, the city has decided to go forward with the New York City marathon. I'm of two minds about this. One the one hand, valuable city resources are being diverted from people in need-- altho by Sunday, there will be far fewer-- to the race. Generators, police patrols, ambulances and EMTs, closed roadways, all of these will be in place for the race Sunday.
On the other, it's a great opportunity for the national news to cover the tragedy and to give the rest of the world a sense of the devastation. While runners will not be going through any of the affected areas (one reason the race is going on), they will be close by. Second, there are tens of thousands of tourists in the city for the race. They, too, are a form of media back home about the conditions here. It would put a human face on a situation that many view in the abstract and some have even poo-pooed. Third, a significant portion of the need for police and ambulances will have gone by Sunday. That's just a fact. Already we've seen a large percentage of the mass transit system come back online, power is being restored to hundreds of thousands of people everyday and search and rescue missions have phased into search and recovery.
It's too big a moment to withdraw into a shell. But who can really be sure until Sunday?
4) Mixed news for Obama on the jobs front: more people were hired last week than analysts and pundits projected, but the jobless rate inched up anyway. One thing to note about Sandy, a positive: there will be plenty of jobs to go around in construction and clean up over the next several months. Boardwalks need to be rebuilt, houses fixed, roads repaired. This could jump start the regional economy, and by extension, the national economy.
5) Oh. And Syrians rebels have started to push back harder against Assad. Can't forget the rest of the world.
6) Yea, this can't be good...
7) Ratvatar
8) Who needs the Weather Channel? Well, at least she'd be safe with her built-in flotation devices.
9) Corey Booker shouldn't run for President. Corey Booker should run for saint.
10) Finally, Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend, and not a moment too soon. Don't forget to turn your clocks back.
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