Convention républicaine: le fantôme de Katrina

Après avoir retardé le début de leur convention en raison du passage de la tempête tropicale Isaac, les républicains craignent maintenant que leur image soit entachée par les effets que pourraient entraîner Isaac dans la région touchée par Katrina il y a quelques années. Non seulement fêter pendant la convention ne serait pas approprié, mais l'attention des médias ne serait plus portée que sur la grande fête républicaine.

 "Instead, party officials and convention planners are increasingly anxious about a different and possibly more damaging scenario: a split-screen broadcast of Republicans partying in Tampa alongside images of serious storm damage in states such as Louisiana and Mississippi.

 Some Republicans here worry the juxtaposition of events could revive memories of the disastrous 2005 storms — Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — and the government’s terrible handling of them.

Public outrage over the George W. Bush administration’s response to those catastrophes — Katrina especially — shadowed the president and the GOP for years. For Republicans, Katrina is their version of the Carter administration’s failed Iranian hostage rescue in 1980 — an enduring symbol of collective incompetence, a political wound that will not heal.

For the 2012 convention to move ahead amid another Gulf Coast disaster could make Romney and his supporters look oblivious to the plight of the victims — or at the very least, leave them competing for media attention for a full week with a disaster response effort.

 Isaac is not expected to create Katrina’s extreme level of havoc. But Republicans are bracing for the political impact anyway, and have not ruled out the possibility of cancelling or revising the remaining three days of the convention.

 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80219.html?hp=t1_3