People in Florida are hopping mad that the Kerry camp is being critical of President Bush for visiting the areas hit by hurricane Charley. Democrats are accusing Bush of being political because he decided to come here when he did. My response to them is, to quote Teresa Hines Kerry, shove it. Whenever there is a major natural disaster, whoever is president always visits the area. We had a visit from Bush the elder after Andrew, and when killer tornados hit central Florida during Clinton's presidency, he was down here practically before the dust even settled. By coming to Florida on Sunday, George W. Bush didn't do anything out of the ordinary, he didn't do any election year grandstanding, he did what we've come to expect every president to do.
I can almost guarantee that those voters who were sitting on the fence or who were leaning toward Kerry but not totally decided are going to move over into the Bush camp because one thing you just don't do is play politics with things like hurricanes, especially when you are saying that the President of the United States should stay away and act like nothing much happened. Basically, I think that Kerry just lost Florida and it may very well be what costs him the election.
Posted by kathryn at Agosto 17, 2004 01:38 AM | TrackBackIronic how Kerry has criticised President Bush for waiting "seven minutes" to react to the attacks on 9/11, yet would apparently prefer to have the President not react at all to this disaster.
Posted by: Justin at Agosto 17, 2004 09:23 AMSeems to me like Kerry is his own worst enemy...
Posted by: Vickie at Agosto 17, 2004 12:24 PMHey there, just thought I'd let you know that as a Tampa Bay blogger, you're invited to the Tampa Bay Blog Fest at Channelside next month:
http://www.evite.com/pages/gt/events/viewPub.jsp?eventID=CNJMUJTOKUXENXARQYQQ
Hope you can make it!
Posted by: Sarah at Agosto 17, 2004 10:45 PMActually this is not true. Kerry said it was good that Bush visited Florida. He had a number of positive things to say about the fact that Bush went to Florida. He said he was glad he did, because the people needed it.
Whoever told you Kerry said something bad about Bush visiting Florida was lying to you.
Kerry also asked his campaign workers in Florida to assist people who were effected by the hurricane.
Posted by: Rod at Agosto 18, 2004 09:37 PMRod, let me guess, you're a Kerry campaign operative that's trying to do damage control. I didn't say that John Kerry himself was critical, I said that people in his camp were being critical. Democratic operatives, who aren't going to be saying anything unless someone in the Kerry campaign thinks they should, have been going around complaining and criticizing Bush for visiting Florida. Take your misinformation campaign elsewhere.
Posted by: kathryn at Agosto 19, 2004 12:33 AM