Did Hurricane Sandy Sweep Away Romney's Chances?

The picture says a thousand words. (Photo courtesy The Daily Beast)

President Obama discontinued his election campaign to become fully engaged in dealing with Hurricane Sandy, before during and after the storm. He looked very Presidential in his demeanor and conduct, earning high praise from the Republican Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. Obama sent a message of confidence to the public that he is the leader to rely on during a crisis.

Former President George W. Bush's conduct during Hurricane Katrina was totally the opposite. He looked ill informed and incompetent. He became the laughing stock of late night comedians for  praising Brown, then head of FEMA (you are doing a great job Brownie), whereas Brown had done a disastrous job.

In all this, candidate Romney had to take a back seat and some of his earlier utterances came back to haunt him, when he said he would wind up FEMA, which has done a remarkable job this time around. Romney and Ryan have restarted their campaign today, but that may seem inappropriate to many as a large portion of population in New Jersey and New York is still suffering from the massive damage caused by the hurricane.

Hurricane Sandy may have swept away the outside chance Romney may have had of winning the Presidential election. However, it has created a new Republican leader in Chris Christie, who did a great job in this crisis making him possibly the ideal Republican candidate for 2016.

Reflecting Absence

The memorial created for 9/11 victims at ground zero is a painful reminder of the mindless death and destruction of human beings. Nearly 3,000 of them, who for no reason or fault of their own became victims of a mindless and senseless terrorist attack.

Some who lost their loved ones have moved on and made peace within themselves, but many others watched the memorial aptly named 'Reflecting Absence' in pain and sadness. Some kissed the brass name plates of their lost ones, others made stencil copies of the names to keep as mementos. What must be most painful for the families is that only 291 bodies were recovered and not a shred of remains was found for the other 2,500 who perished. No watches. no rings, no teeth, no DNA to prove their death and yet, the families had to accept that their loved ones were lost forever.

The political speeches somehow felt out of place. Instead of easing the pain of affected families, politicians seemed to be making futile speeches. It may have been more respectful, had there been no politician speech at all.

On this somber occasion, one could not help but also feel pain and sorrow for the families of 150,000 Iraqis killed by a mindless and senseless war, launched in the name of 'War on Terror'. A war that was totally unnecessary, illegal and criminal. There were no speeches, nor any memorial built for the 150,000 who lost their lives in Iraq.

We all know now and many knew all along that Iraq had nothing to do with attacks of 9/11. But it is quite clear that George W. Bush and his gang of extreme right wing ne-cons came prepared to launch a war on Iraq regardless of whether 9/11 had happened or not.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague does not have the courage of conviction to haul them over on charges of crimes against humanity as ICCC only goes after minor third world dictators. Hopefully, one day the American families, who have suffered the consequences of this war, will haul them before a court of law in U.S. and ask them, why was it necessary for them to lose more than 5,000 sons and daughters to this war and 25,000 to have been maimed forever?