Bill Clinton's Playbook

Pulling a page from Bill Clinton's playbook, Donald Trump is in Louisiana to visit the worst flooding of the state since Katrina.  Bill Clinton did this with the LA Riots of 1992, making the sitting president look indifferent to the troubles.  Obama, who is not in a reelection campaign, has no interest in cutting his vacation to visit a state that voted against him in 2012.  His reaction was much different when Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey shortly before his reelection.  Hillary should know this.  The first major candidate to show up is going to get some warm fuzzies from the populace.  If Hillary goes to Louisiana now, it will be seen as damage control.  What is funny is that Trump has taken as long as he has.  The door was wide open for Hillary, or even Bill, to wade into the state and win some positive press.

 

On a different tact, isn't it interesting how there is relatively little coverage of this when compared to Katrina or Sandy?  Katrina was blamed on George W Bush and the aftermath of that disaster contributed to the Democrats retaking the Congress the following year.  Sandy was a great PR miracle for President Obama during his reelection campaign.  Every mention of it on the news was like a free ad campaign for him.  But now, Louisiana has a Democrat as governor and the President is also a Democrat.  It is hard to spin as a pro-Democrat crisis and it is best avoided.  If a Republican was president during this, CNN would be broadcasting live from a raft in the flood waters to show us what an uncaring villain the president was.