Tropical Storm Isaac is bearing down on south Florida this morning at it gathers strength. The Weather Channel reports trees are already down in Miami, and watching the channel last night was a bit surreal: Thousands of people have converged on Tampa for a party, only to have nature rudely intrude. Yet the only sign I saw of approaching doom last night was myself, running around Tampa looking for a rain coat. I have a beautiful overcoat I bought for the Iowa caucuses several months back, but it went unused then thanks to unseasonably good weather in January there. Now, it’s hanging in my closet at home, thanks to my own last-minute forgetfulness.
Isaac should rev up to a Category One hurricane, and projections say it’s heading to Tampa’s west but it’s still going to be a rough patch ahead. The Weather Channel folks said last night that we should all plan for three days without power. How one blogs for three days without power was not explained.
The first parties of the RNC went off Saturday night without a hitch, or so I learned from a Stacy McCain phone call placed surreptitiously on the cell phone of another friend of mine. Protip: Keep your cell phone away from R.S. McCain. You don’t know where he’s been. Literally, after the Brett Kimberlin insanity started.
Thousands of Republicans and media are here, plus however many protesters planned to show up and be silly, but Isaac has already scrambled the schedule. Monday will happen in name only. In the mean time, as we search mostly in vain for real news, we learn that Florida’s former governor, Republican turned Oompa Charlie Crist doubles down on the hug that cost him a Senate seat and endorses Barack Obama’s re-election. Somewhere on the way to here, Mitt Romney is smiling. And his campaign is surely reminding the world that Crist wasn’t always so positive on Obama’s re-election outlook.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he thinks President Barack Obama could be in for an ousting from office similar to what happened to Democratic President Jimmy Carter after his first term.
“I think the people wanted a change,” the Florida Republican said, speaking of the election of Obama in November while drawing similarities to events decades earlier.
“They wanted a change back in 1976. You remember? Richard Nixon had been president. That ended. Gerald Ford took over. The people decided they wanted a change. They got one-Jimmy Carter. Four years later, they took care of business-Ronald Reagan.”
“It may happen again,” Crist went on. “I believe that the people have seen that they wanted a change but not this much. Not this kind, and not this way. America is awake and we’re coming back.”
That was back in 2009. At that point Crist was a Republican and Florida’s most popular politician. Marco Rubio was an upstart. Now Rubio is the star senator with the rising national profile and Crist is whatever Crist is. But he backs Obama!
Roger, Roger (Over, Unger) and I will spend the next few days looking for news and dodging flying debris. Isaac, so far, is the star of the show.
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