Updated Forecast: In Excess of 8" of Snow, Plus Wind
And Now, 10-20 Inches
Federal Govt. Closed Tuesday
Snowmaggedon 1.0 in Time Lapse
No disrespect meant to Governor Tim Kaine, whom I'm sure is a competent storm chaser, but are there seriously not more qualified people in the Commonwealth of Virginia to do this sort of thing? While I'm certain that a helicopter tour of the state would have given Kaine a better impression of the damage done in Hampton Roads by storms, that helicopter tour might have informed any number of state employees who are 1) not the governor and 2) trained in insurance adjustment or aid deployment or whatever field is involved with checking out storm damage from the air.
Now, as it happens, it's too cloudy out to assess the damage from a helicopter. (Presuming you are in some way qualified to do that in the first place.) Instead of canceling or delaying this lame-duck joyride, Gov. Kaine is instead expanding its duration by at least an order of magnitude by taking a car. Again, are there not people in Virginia who are more qualified -- or, to look at it another way, less essential -- to cruise around the state in a Jeep Cherokee looking at felled trees? No doubt it was a serious storm; ABC7 reports that at the worst of it, some 180,000 people were without power. Still I believe Kaine could delegate this authority. What is he supposed to do out there, anyway?
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This article is totally incomprehensible. You should start the article with some sort of background so we know what you're even commenting about before you launch into your criticism.
Even once I figured out what the article is about, I'm still confused. Isn't joy riding around an disaster area part of the standard "being seen" bit that all politicians do? I imagine the residents of these areas probably want to know that their problems are being addressed. No one expects him to wield a chainsaw, but showing up and being heard is part of the job description.
While I resolutely don't give a crap about what happens in Virginia, I suppose their Governor should.
I'll assume you felt it was OK for George W. Bush to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina? Of course in that case it was through a window of Air Force One flying at 34,000 feet and he was on his way to visit his good friend Trent Lott so they could start repairs on Sen. Lotts's 32,000 square foot antebellum-style mansion in central New Orleans.
Case in point. Frowning thoughtfully out the window from your jet so that your photographer can snap a picture that "you care" didn't really fool anyone.
I don't think anyone argues that President Bush was too hands on in Katrina.
Wait, are you really suggesting the governor shouldn't have toured these areas? Sure there are other people in the administration who might be better qualified, but come on, it's important for the governor to be there, even if it is primarily symbolic in nature.
Can we start a "most retarded story of the week" contest?
I'd rather be austermuhled than be subjected to such an inane post.
hear! hear! Personally, I am glad my governor went on a bit of a tour (in other words, what Hillman said). It could have been worse, he could have been with his mistress in Brazil.
It's not a campaign photo-op, either...since Kaine was a lame duck from the day he took his oath of office thanks to the World's Stupidest Term Limit Rule (TM).
If I want IOKIYAR posts, I'll read politics blogs, thanks.
Kriston Capps is not a good writer. Plain and simple. He should stick to writing about the art world, where self-absorbed nonsense is all the rage.
kriston has had some amazing stories on the weekends. this is not one of them.
Don't write drunk. This is nonsense.
We Americans are so habituated to our culture of politics-by-publicity-stunt that this article is incomprehensible to us; it's like a fish reading an article about water.
The point of the article is that these solemn VIP disaster-area fly-overs are worthless diversions of valuable resources. The entire point of the exercise is to get a politician's name on the nightly news in a sympathetic context, nothing else. If the politician actually cared about getting a true picture of the extent of a disaster, I'm convinced he could do that a lot faster by having his staff bring him a map and some pictures. But where's the PR value in that?
We watch these politicians profit from others' misery by basically staging a re-election campaign photo-op amid the devastation, and we see nothing wrong with that. It's just the way it's always been.
Our politicians are turning us into a Third World country, and by God, we deserve it.
This story is confusingly written, but the bigger problem is it's a stupid thing to complain about. Elected officials are supposed to tour disaster sites and pontificate. We expect it. In fact, we pretty much demand it.
And it actually does some good. In particular, reports of flooding and damage in coastal areas is best seen in person, since it can vary widely. And there are other issues at play, like is the damage mostly in areas where we've been telling people not to build for decades? Is the flooding showing patterns that would allow us to plan for the future?
Yes, and underling could have gone. But that underling doesn't make final decisions on what to do about the damage. It's sometimes best to see something in person, to get the full effect. Particularly since our media claims every minor storm is a disaster, so seeing photos from afar doesn't really give you a good sense of the truth.
If I lived in Tidewater and the Governor sent an intern I'd be a bit pissed.
And from a waste point of view, this is a tiny expenditure. Compare it to, say, how much the Governor and other officials constantly use taxpayer resources on the campaign trail, on constant fundraising, on bullshit divisive issues designed just to be divisive, etc.
Kristen has a tendency to do this with her stories. It's kind of like stepping into the second Act of a play.
That aside, its a non-issue.
newhce: kriston might be interested to know that he has become a woman over the weekend.
Now there's a freakin story!
Give the girl a break. More than half the crap I read from DCist commentariats is ten times worse than this article.
Yes, but we are not being paid a big six-figure salary to post like Kristen is...wait, what?