Monday Meanderings (for September 15, 2008)

Obviously, the big story in the past week was hurricane Ike, his surge on coastal Texas and the surge he initiated at the gas pump.

Of course, not everything has been totally assessed but I'm surprised both weren't worse.

I can totally understand not evacuating when tropical rainstorm Hanna came our way. Despite what some readers think, it was made pretty clear on local stations that the storm was nothing to hit the road screaming over. I can not understand not hitting the road when the possibility of a cat-3 comes your way (Ike hit as a cat-2, which I believe was Katrina's intensity, too, in 2005)... especially when you live on a low-lying barrier island.

There were people saying stupid things like, "I'm ready to ride it out. I have a tankful of gas and five days worth of food and water." What good is that when your house is under water? All of us have to pay when the Coast Guard goes in to get these folks. It's utterly amazing it wasn't worse as far as lost lives go.

I was watching C-SPAN Saturday morning and some lady from Fort Worth (the storm wasn't as far north as the Dallas-Fort Worth area at the time) called the guest from FEMA and started moaning about the storm and how "Obama has to tell us what to do."

Can you believe some people can be so stupid or ignorant or pathetic? Or all of the above. Here you have what could still be a minimal hurricane coming your way and you want a presidential candidate to make the call of what you should do. Heck, Senator Obama was probably fast asleep in his $2,000 a night campaign-stop hotel suite.

Speaking of Ike, you should have heard the phone calls coming into the TV station Thursday afternoon about station hiking up prices and long lines at the pump. At the time, our newscasts were pretty much concentrating on local 9/11 observations. However, after (and I'm not exaggerating) some 50 calls, we were able to put a small story into both the 5:00 and 6:00 newscasts about the panic at the pump. Then we actually had a couple of calls saying we caused the panic... even though our short report aired hours after the rush began. Oh well. The prices I saw this morning were generally between $3.85 and $3.95 a gallon. Again, not good, but I'm surprised they haven't gone up more.

This "Ike hike" is certainly not a good thing. However, we're in line for a bad thing. Whether it's a much worse natural disaster, a terrorist attack, some horrific, unimaginable accident or a long OPEC embargo, sooner or later this Ike spike will be nothing. And that's because our problem won't necessarily be higher prices. It will be dry pumps. The embargo of the early 70s opened our eyes to the extent we now have the strategic petroleum reserve (which only protects us for about a month), but as each small crisis came and went, so did our government's and, yes, our public's urgency to fix the problem. The problem still exists and it will until we are energy self-efficient in this country. To do that will take money and sacrifice and unless we're in crisis, no politician (whether it's the president of those on Capitol Hill) wants to make that call. Pass it on to the next guy. And the public is at fault, too. If gas gets back down to about the $2.20 mark or so, everyone will right back to their old ways and any politician who calls for change will be mocked.

Speaking of politicians, who in the world is advising the Obama folks? First of all, they put out a full-fledged assault... not on the presidential nominee. .. but on the running mate! I've seen zero orchestrated attacks by the McCain camp on Biden. I've seen dozens on Palin. And look what happened. McCain gains. Every time some nitwit goes after Palin (no matter how insignificantly), the McCain folks cry foul and their numbers go up. At times, it's like the punter who fakes the roughing call and gets the flag. But the Democrats keep getting flagged. If they keep it up, the sure-thing victory will turn into a sure-thing loss. Of course, the Republicans should realize they can get flagged, too, for excessive celebration. I've also read a number of items where the Democrats may finally be getting the message to lay off attacks on the running mate. But then they put out an ad that mocks McCain for not knowing how to use a computer and send emails. The rest of the ad hits more-relevant issues, but no one hears it. All people hear is Obama going after the old folks (many of whom have never used a computer). Plus, depending on whom you believe, McCain's war injuries may prevent him from using a keyboard to any great extent. I think the local access station comes out with a better ad campaign.

Of course, people around here will never see the ads on their local stations because Obama has written off South Carolina and McCain has taken it for granted.

And you know why the Democrats all-out attack Palin? They're worried about her. You know why the Republicans don't all-out attack Biden? They aren't worried about him.

Would it be a total surprise if Biden should come up with some "reason" he couldn't continue and Hillary Clinton steps in to say the day?

There would be no flag for illegal substitution. And it could be a move that would win in November.

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