A shorter version of MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski this morning with regards to the Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the presidential election: This is all great for President Barack Obama.
In a joint appearance with her “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough telecasted on both MSNBC and on NBC’s “Today” on Monday, the two pointed to various reasons why the storm helps Obama in his reelection bid against Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
“[M]itt Romney had momentum,” Scarborough said. “You look at Ohio, an Ohio poll that came out had them deadlocked, a Minnesota poll, three. He gets the endorsement from The Des Moines Register, first endorsement since Nixon got it in ’72. In that state, that’s a big deal. This was Mitt Romney’s best weekend, and it stops. The momentum stops. You don’t know how it freezes the race, but you certainly know that it’s a new dynamic into the race, and it changes everything with a week to go.”
Brzezinski took it a step beyond the strategic implications and said handling the storm helps the president’s image with a little over a week left until the election.
“There are pitfalls because something could go wrong, and people could maybe perhaps the president isn’t doing enough,” Brzezinski said. But if this storm is as big as it portends to be and all indications are that it’s going to be massive, expect command centers up and down the East Coast and the president to be very visible at all of them, telling people about the federal dollars that are on the way. And that will be advantage Obama.”
Scarborough reminded viewers of what Obama will have to do to capitalize on the storm and avoid replicating the stumbles of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
“The president’s going to have the opportunity to go to Virginia not as a politician but as a president,” Scarborough said. “Somebody there to help out. Somebody there to comfort people. You know, the two Bushes — Bush 41 and Bush 43, had disasters in their handling of hurricanes. George H.W. Bush with Andrew, which damaged his political career, was damaged there. And of course George W. Bush in 2005 with Katrina. Many people in the Bush White House say that was the low point of his presidency. A lot of dangers, also a lot of political opportunities.”