Enough

John McCain celebrated his 72nd birthday by naming Sarah Palin, the new governor of Alaska, as his VP candidate. Jonathan Alter in Newsweek:

Happy birthday, Johnny Mac! You're 72 now, a cancer survivor, and a presidential candidate who has said on many occasions that the most important criteria for picking a vice president is whether he or she could immediately step in if something happened to the president. Your campaign against Barack Obama is based on the simple idea that he is unready to be president. So you've picked a running mate who a year and a half ago was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 8,500 people. You've selected a potential leader of the free world who knows little or nothing about the major issues of the day beyond energy. Oh, and she's being probed in her state for lying and abuse of power."

The photos above are of McCain and President Bush celebrating McCain's 69th birthday, on the same day as hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and the Bush administration let that city drown, let people suffer for days, and never did respond adequately.

Now as the Republican convention is set to begin, another hurricane is bearing down on the Gulf, possibly New Orleans itself. Yet a New York Times editorial begins: Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, residents there are nervously watching the progress of Tropical Storm-threatening-to-be-Hurricane Gustav. No less nerve-wracking is the knowledge that federal emergency planners have failed to come up with a new strategy for providing housing to disaster victims.

In July — a full year after Congress’s mandated deadline — the Federal Emergency Management Agency produced a skimpy draft proposal. Most of its required topic specialties — including how to house the poor and the disabled, how to house victims close to their jobs and how to manage large camps for evacuees — were left blank. Instead, the proposal called for handing those plans off to a task force of experts. And, oh yes, that task force has yet to be formed.

We've had enough of cynical political ploys, uncaring incompetence, and failure to value the lives of the most vulnerable Americans. The past eight years have severely damaged this country in multiple ways. It will take immense effort and dedication and intelligence to repair that damage and start meeting new challenges. We can't afford four more years. The economic news of today--lower incomes, higher inflation--is another reason why. It's time for a change.