Hours after Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney visited Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac on Friday, White House press secretary Jay Carney announced President Barack Obama would call an audible in his schedule and visit Louisiana on Monday to assess the storm’s damage.
Obama’s leading-from-behind reaction to Romney’s visit reaffirmed Clint Eastwood’s empty chair analogy, which upset the mainstream media, the iconic actor used Thursday night at the Republican National Convention when discussing Obama and his presidency.
“The empty-chair analogy by Clint Eastwood might be far more accurate and impactful than the Obama campaign and its cheerleaders in the media care to accept,” the insightful Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus wrote.
The mainstream media juxtaposed images of Hurricane Issac hitting Louisiana next to images of the RNC throughout the week, and they continued to stress the seriousness of the storm. Mainstream media networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and PBS reminded their viewers of Hurricane Katrina, and blamed former President George W. Bush for his inaction during Katrina.
Yet Obama spent the week campaigning in crucial swing states like Iowa, Colorado, and Virginia (Louisiana is not a swing state). He even took some time to chat online, proposing a constitutional amendment to restrict political speech while on Reddit, an online link-sharing community. He never once visited Louisiana.
And the mainstream media gave Obama a complete pass.
“When somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go,” Eastwood said Thursday night, in comments that could resonate more in light of Obama’s inaction during and after Hurricane Issac.