In a surprise announcement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday that Hurricane Sandy had reshaped his thinking about the presidential campaign and that as a result he was endorsing President Obama.
Mr. Bloomberg, a political independent in his third term leading New York City, has been sharply critical of both Mr. Obama, a Democrat, and Mitt Romney, the president’s Republican rival, saying that both men have failed to candidly confront the problems afflicting the nation. But he said he had decided over the past several days that Mr. Obama was the best candidate to tackle the global climate change that the mayor believes contributed to the violent storm, which took the lives of at least 38 New Yorkers and caused billions of dollars in damage.
“The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast — in lost lives, lost homes and lost business — brought the stakes of next Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief,” Mr. Bloomberg wrote in an editorial for Bloomberg View.
“Our climate is changing,” he wrote. “And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it may be — given the devastation it is wreaking — should be enough to compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.”
Mr. Bloomberg’s announcement is another indication that Hurricane Sandy has influenced the presidential campaign. The storm, and the destruction it left in its wake, has dominated news coverage, transfixing the nation and prompting the candidates to halt their campaigning briefly.
More than that, it appears to have given a new level of urgency to a central issue in the presidential campaign: the appropriate size and role of government.
You know nothing makes you appreciate government, and the President who leads it, like watching them come to the aid of your city and literally save the lives of its citizens.
This storm was an incredibly unfortunate thing, but what is almost as unfortunate is that it took such a calamity to get people to recognize just what an amazing President they had leading their country.
This endorsement is a big one for the President, and coming on the heels of his budding "bromance" with Chris Christie, I think the President is well on his way to that landslide we have all been hoping for.
You know perhaps the bright light at the end of this terrible tragedy is that it will FINALLY wake people up, like it did Mayor Bloomberg, to the FACT that climate change is real, and that we have to do something about it now! If this fires up the American people to where they will finally support regulations that protect our environment, and demand that we spend more time and resources expanding our ability to utilize renewable fuel sources, we might some day look back at Hurricane Sandy as an important turning point for this country.
And I agree with the mayor that President Obama is the perfect person to lead the way forward.
Glad Sandy happened before the election rather than after. Don't get me wrong wish it never happened, but it was just a matter of time. This is a wake up call to people that these issues are real. Besides Sandy is going to create lot of jobs if Romney was elected he just claim credit.
ReplyDeleteo/t Keep in mind with Bristol that she'll be in Alaska soon and that dodge, which has never seen Alaska despite plate (confusing, as she bought it in AZ) isn't exactly a car that's good for Alaska weather or living. IT can't go muddin, camping or offroad easily, all things people there do. I get the feeling it was her SW car. She HAS driven her truck between AZ and AK several times in the last 2 years, but why have more than one vehicle and a car that may not fare in an arctic state? Common sense.
ReplyDeleteReally, who gives a shit?
DeleteI could go the rest of my life without wondering whether she drives a car, takes a bus, or hitchhikes, providing blowjobs in exchange for the driver giving her a ride to and from work every day. She's an attention whore, plain and simple.
I have 3 vehicles, all for different purposes. Do you want to hear the life history of each, the reason I bought them, and all of the physical details of each? No, I didn't think so.
Only an idiot thinks his or her mode of transportation is SPECIAL because it gets THEM from point A to point B.
3:11am:
DeleteThere are plenty of sporty cars here in AK, we have an Audi TT; it doesn't go "muddin;" or off road but is really fast and does great in the snow and ice! We drive it all year, it never gets garaged. There are plenty of mustangs and chargers and camaros and other "muscle" cars on the roads up here. She could have easily barged her car up from Seattle if she wanted to keep it. As a matter of fact, a lot of us purchase our cars in Seattle because there is a greater selection and the prices are better, and we barge them up to Anchorage rather than drive the Alcan. She probably wanted to dump the car because it was a heinously ugly piece of junk, that would be my guess.
So awesome and I love what you wrote. What a great thing to come out of this devastation if Sandy does in fact become a turning point.
ReplyDeleteI received a Republican flyer by mail giving notice of "job termination in VA" blaming Obama listing his "failures".
ReplyDeleteThe flyer reiterates less ships since 1914, less ground troops since 1940 (lol WWII), ignoring national security, massive defense cuts, lack of leadership.
This is a different voter intimidation meme like Chrysler/auto lies, voter intimidation from employers that a vote for Obama is you will lose your job. They used the additional scare tactic of another recession in 2013.
And if they elect Mitt they'll get what they want. Another depression.
DeleteThere's no atheists in foxholes.
ReplyDeleteThe good mayor needed the storm of the century to make him pretend to consider the greater good over petty politics. It makes me laugh that he thinks his endorsement is worth anything.
There are only 3 types of people who currently deny Global Climate Change.
ReplyDelete1. The religious ideologue who will only believe what he has been programmed to believe. It's all part of "Gods Plan".
2. The willfully or absolutely ignorant person.
3. The paid troll who pushes lies in order to promote someone's greed.
All 3 are very dangerous, but religious ideologue is the most dangerous of them all.
The very big challenge with man-enhanced climate change is that it took us a very long time to get here. We've been effecting the climate with emissions since the dawn of the industrial revolution, although at a very accelerated rate for the last 50 years. Coastal cities, such as New York, will most likely be partially underwater before we can reverse the process, but if we begin now the leading climatologists agree that we can at least see change by the year 2100. Venice, Italy? Well, if you haven't been to Venice yet you better put it on your bucket list because Venice only has another 20 years of being a functional city. It has flooded 3 feet or more nearly 60 times this year alone!
ReplyDeleteAnd Fox News will be reporting the latest Obama Scandal du jour, whereby they uncover that the Kenyan Muslim Spawn of Satan orchestrated the whole Hurricane Sandy disaster in an attempt to sway voters in 3...2...1...
ReplyDelete