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?