Hurricane Obama

By Amy Yensi-

John McCain is postponing 'most' Republican National Convention activities until further notice because of the likelihood that Hurricane Gustav will touch down on the Gulf Coast.

In addition, President Bush and Vice President Cheney, who were slated to appear on Monday, the first night of the Convention, will probably be unable to attend because they will be turning their attention to the affected areas.

The reasoning behind the decision is logical, conventions are cheerful events, and it would be a slap in the face to the misplaced and suffering for their leaders to be gleefully pushing their political agenda while they are facing such difficult times.

It must be noted, however, that even before the mandatory evacuations began or even before they became mandatory, McCain was already proposing to give his acceptance speech from New Orleans. One can easily gather that the Republicans are using Gustav as redemption for Katrina; as their way of showing that they really did learn from what is widely seen as the worse governmental response to a natural disaster in United States history.

Although the image of McCain giving his acceptance speech while enduring the disastrous conditions expected to reach the Gulf Coast would truly feed in to his 'Maverick' image, there is another theory that has not been proposed for his convention postponement.

Firstly, if anyone ever needed an indication that the Republican brand is in trouble, the Republican National Convention schedule is a pure indication of exactly that. McCain scheduled a sitting president and vice president to speak on the first night, talk about getting it over with. Even the commercials sounded odd, "Live from the Republican National Convention, President Bush and Vice President Cheney." Two of the most unpopular men in America being touted in an effort to get viewership, how ironic.

Add to the mix, a widely acclaimed Democratic acceptance speech, which was compared to a symphony by David Gergen because it was such a "political masterpiece" and you potentially have the real Hurricane McCain and co. are truly concerned about, Hurricane Obama.

I highly doubt that the 38 million people that watched Obama's acceptance speech would tune in to watch Bush and Cheney, and I suspect McCain and his camp know that too.

The onslaught of questions swirling around McCain's odd selection for a running mate, the seemingly successful coming together of the Hillary and Obama campaigns, the widely lauded speeches from both Clintons and especially Obama, contain more pressure for the McCain campaign than can be produced by any storm.

So for the critics that will scoff at the McCain, Bush, and Cheney decision to curtail their participation in the Republican National Convention as a ploy to assuage further criticism to the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina, please do not waste precious cynicism on this easy assessment. Gustav is the only way that McCain has to avoid the probable belittlement of his event when compared to the Obamapalooza of last week.

After the storm the rebuilding will begin.