-By Warner Todd Huston
Many in the Old Media establishment today are praising Obama for keeping politics out of his administrative duties concerning Hurricane Sandy, but he didn’t leave politics entirely out of it during his FEMA briefing, that’s for sure.
The President has made a big show out of suspending his political campaign as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the east coast of the country. Obama has canceled his campaign appearances in order to stay in D.C. and he’s been all over the airwaves with his grave pronouncements and his directives.
But he didn’t leave campaign mode entirely as evidence by the White House pushing O’s campaign slogan, “forward,” into a press release on the storm.
“The president made clear that he expects his team to remain focused as the immediate impacts of Hurricane Sandy continue and lean forward in their response,” the White House said in a statement about Mr. Obama’s video-teleconference that he conducted from the White House Situation Room.
As I am sure you all know, “forward” is the slogan of the President’s re-election campaign.
But the effort of the White House pales in comparison to Obama surrogate Bill Clinton’s use of this natural disaster in order to help Obama’s reelection effort. Bill Clinton not only used the occasion of the storm to push Obama’s prospects, he also used it as a platform to sell his big government ideas based on the claims that global warming is going to “permanently” raise ocean levels.
As Jonah Goldberg notes, it is somewhat amusing that quoting the President’s *own words is now somehow illicit “ridicule.”
Clinton Transcript
I was actually listening closely to what the candidates said in these debates. In the first debate, the triumph of the moderate Mitt Romney. You remember what he did? He ridiculed the President. Ridiculed the President for his efforts to fight global warming in economically beneficial ways. He said, “Oh, you’re gonna turn back the seas.”
In my part of America we would like it if someone could have done that yesterday. All up and down (applause)… listen to me… All up an down the east coast there are mayors, many of whom are Republicans, who are being told, “you gotta move these houses back away from the ocean, you’ve gotta lift ’em up, climate change is gonna raise the water levels on a permanent basis. If you want your town insured, you have to do this.”
In the real world Barack Obama’s policies work better.
*As a reminder, in 2008 Obama arrogantly claimed in a speech in Minnesota that his election would lower the oceans and “heal” the planet:
“The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth.”
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.