Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/80651
8A Daily News– Wednesday, August 29, 2012 WASHINGTON (AP) — Politicians know every hurricane means avoiding disaster — including their own. Intent on showing the empathy and crisis leader- ship voters want, Republi- cans from Mitt Romney and Southern governors scrambled to shape their tone and tactics Monday as an ominous storm barreled past their national conven- tion site in Tampa, Fla., and toward the broader Gulf Coast. and an embarrassingly slow response from the federal government contributed to the toll and helped diminish President George W. Bush's second term. That episode became a potential make-or-break test for elected leaders to show smart politics and an agile, able response. It was Bush's Air Force Political peril awaits those who fumble disaster preparedness and respons- es. That's the legacy of Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that forever changed how responses to disasters would be judged. Democrats also were quietly making their own calculations, mindful of how one insensitively timed political speech or line of attack could bring blow- back. On a low-profile day at the White House, Presi- dent Barack Obama got briefings on Tropical Storm Isaac and went forward — for now — with plans for a campaign trip beginning Tuesday to Iowa, Colorado and Virginia. Seven years ago, Katri- na's blow was catastrophic, One flyover of Katrina's destruction of New Orleans that cemented the image of him as a detached leader — repeating a perception problem that his presiden- tial dad, George H.W. Bush, faced for the federal response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Hurricanes hold election-year peril for candidates as he and his wife, Ann, walked into a high school auditorium near his New Hampshire summer home to rehearse his convention speech. Yet asked if thought about canceling the event, he said: ''We've got a great convention ahead.'' swath of Republicans gov- ernors to change course. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jin- dal, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant all delayed or canceled their trips to Tampa. not want to disrupt local rescue efforts but later wished he had landed in Baton Rouge, La., to show the people he cared. ''Its benefits would have been good public rela- tions,'' Bush wrote in his memoirs. ''But public rela- tions matter when you are president.'' The younger Bush did day, Romney showed he was trying to find the bal- ance. ''Our thoughts are with the people that are in the storm's path,'' Romney said Or running for president. In brief comments Mon- Isaac forced a Southern the hurricane jitters were back, Tulane University political science professor Brian Brox said the region's governors were moving fast to show their executive leadership — and perhaps, secondarily, audition for a potential appointment in a Romney Cabinet. He said Romney and the Jindal, highly regarded in the party, and Scott, a face of the host state, had both been scheduled to give speeches. Jindal said he was staying home because there ''is no time for poli- tics here in Louisiana'' dur- ing such a storm. In Tampa, former Mis- sissippi Gov. Haley Bar- bour, who guided his state through Katrina, said prop- er empathy would be shown to the people affect- ed most. But he said the Republican Party cannot neglect its big chance to spread the convention mes- sage it had hoped to offer in the first place. ''Conventions are more important to the chal- lenger,'' he said. ''The pres- ident is in our living room every day.'' showing his presidential side. He declared a state of Obama, meanwhile, was Be prepared. Have your car AC serviced. repair, custom paint and matching 35 E7DH;57 EB75;3> "'//5 Auto repair and refinishing, glass +refrigerant, (134A) 530.527.6160 • 915 Madison St., Red Bluff Red Bluff Collision It's heating up outside. emergency in Louisiana Monday and reached out to Gulf Coast governors. The White House also made sure to announce that Obama, in his phone call to the Florida governor, offered any help the admin- istration could provide, including to ''insure the safety of those visiting the state for the Republican National Convention.'' The feel of the GOP convention is already dif- ferent. Republicans essentially cut out the first day of activ- ities on Monday as atten- tion centered on Isaac's path. It was reminiscent of four years ago, when presi- dential candidate John McCain and his party short- ened their Minnesota con- vention out of political respect as Hurricane Gus- tav bore down on the Gulf coast. not expected to pack any- where close to the wallop of Katrina even as it makes its way toward the northern Gulf Coast. Isaac, a tropical storm, is convention organizers, though, could do nothing to help because ''they have no authority.'' ''So what they're hop- ing for is that this is, at most, inconvenient, and that their allied Republican governors handle it well — and that everyone then turns their attention back to the convention,'' Brox said. ''That's what they need.'' factor remains timely. Isaac was expected to hit the Gulf Coast by Tuesday or Wednesday — the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But the political Katrina The Katrina lesson applies to all natural disas- ters, from fires to tornadoes, as well as human tragedies like the mass shooting in July in Aurora, Colo. Obama and Romney both spoke at that time about the need for America to pull together, although harsh politics resumed shortly, as they are likely to again soon. Isaac also injected a new campaign context about the role of government in America. Obama and Rom- ney have engaged mightily on this point on economic terms, but Obama and his team may now see a chance to portray themselves as the defender of disaster aid and other safety nets for the hurting. In New Orleans, where ers like House Speaker John Boehner last year agreed in a budget pact to overhaul the way disaster aid is financed. Instead of infusions of emergency aid, which had led to budget peril, they agreed on a new system in which disaster aid would be funded on top of other programs. Obama and top lawmak-