Hurricane Gustav - a gift to the Republicans

I don't mean to seem unfeeling about real human suffering in New Orleans. I'm not.

But the fact is that the Republicans have been pondering how to remove George Bush and Dick Cheney from their national convention, or at least make them invisible. After all, George Bush takes the prize for unpopularity and Dick Cheney is, well, Dick Cheney.

They got a gift - Hurricane Gustav. At a stroke President Bush disappeared, John McCain got to look caring (though not particularly Presidential) and FEMA sought to prove that it was no longer run by political hacks.

It's too bad that John McCain visited the area. He distracted valuable resources that should have been used for rescue efforts. NOT going to New Orleans was the one inadvertently competent thing George Bush did the last time around.

But hey, it's an election year.

Bob