Miami Condo Collapse: Is Biden as indifferent as Bush the 43rd
I tell you I had to jump into this as fast as I could. Because I would advice one missed chance in politics could be a fatal mistake to one’s political career and history proves that right. One thing you cannot be in American politics is insensitive, it won Obama many hearts and Trump lost in equal measure. Tragedies and personal loss offer any American president the chance to show their humane side, but it also counts as good politics. Forget that it happens at the back of pain and what shouldn’t happen to good people. There are parallels to be made with different administrations but a greater parallel with the current administration with another in recent history.
Not too long ago, 16 years to be exact, Hurricane Katrina hit and devastated the US. The federal response became what people saw as failure with confusion and communication breakdown characterizing the relief effort. The media thrashing and public opinion targeted the person at the helm of the federal response, President Bush, who came out as out-of-touch and indifferent to people’s misery. A fly over the Gulf Coast on Air Force One after spending days on his Texas Ranch ruined the reputation of the president that he never recovered from. The excuse then was “he didn’t want to cause disruptions with the ongoing rescue efforts by visiting the site of the hurricane.” By not visiting the place of devastation immediately, Bush forever will be remembered for his inaction and not his generous financial outreach to the devastated areas.
This same attitude to tragedy happens to be Biden’s response to Miami Condominium collapse. Its only a matter of weeks before the right wing media and all media by the way starts bringing up Biden’s response to what happened in South Florida. The fact that he isn’t planning to visit South Florida is the definition of political short sightedness for a politician who boasts empathy as his anchor and a record half a century of Washington politics. Twinkie-toe Joe as I may want to call him does not want to put his feet on the ground because he could be too lazy to get off his Oval Office seat or walking his dog, but if he has 2024 in mind, he better catch the next flight to Florida. Mostly because there will be a lot of politics in the aftermath.
If Joe Biden has been paying attention, not unless he lives in the world of escapism, he realizes that the GOP and their media muppets want to drag him to the border and shame him there for letting in uncontrolled amounts of Latin American immigrants. But he has not played into their hands for now and has left the media thrashing on Kamala Harris. Note the demographic at play here-Latinos. On the Condo side of things, another group of Latinos mostly wealthy immigrants from Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil and Jewish lived in the Miami Condo. Lets remember that this group didn’t vote for Biden because of the socialism scare that Trump barraged them with in South Florida which brought back bad memories of socialist policies that brought them into the US in the first place. Therefore to win over this demographic with government-led action, it will take Biden to rise to the occasion, get off his comfort zone and dash to console the victims. Sounds bad but its true even if its for political reason.
Biden may want to forget this incident, let it pass as any mass shooting or racial protest, this is different, its a natural or unnatural tragedy, where no one has answers, therefore politics hasn't reared its ugly head yet. Therefore Republican or Democrat can rally around it. Republicans in Florida don't want to take responsibility for the tragedy but they are present on the ground to feel the ire of the victims’ families. But if Biden can look ahead and see who his next challenger would be, he will see the top Republican in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, will have a field day with this one. He might not take questions from some journalists or even take responsive action at the back of the popularity he has gotten fighting the ‘Radical Left’, until Biden arrives. But DeSantis will continue to act like he has nothing to lose and even use this tragedy to attack Biden in future when we have all forgotten it happened simply because Biden refuses to fly to South Florida. Its about time he puts that empathy hat on, because much will be at stake in the near future. He may have to put out a PR gambit that Bush will tell him will ultimately backfire. Someone is already asking, “What can’t wait in Washington that the President can’t come to see us?” A man has just enough time, its time to move Biden.
