Before I start getting accused of piling on a fat guy, please realize that Chris Christie is a white Republican, which means it is OK to mock him for any reason. Very cool that they have a picture of Obama shooting OBL between the eyes, too.
Of course he did. If he wasn't running for President he'd be nowhere near the least coast. He wouldn't give a rat's ass about them.
He was the governor of Massachusetts. Dumb post, but that's your act, and I get it. Did Obama visit Joplin, MO, immediately after the tornado, or Texas after the wildfires? Did he even visit North Carolina after people died there last year after their hurricane?
Ugh, right. It was Mayor Bloomberg, smart guy. President Barack Obama will be getting a firsthand look at the damage done by the superstorm in New Jersey but not in New York City — and Mayor Michael Bloomberg is OK with that. Bloomberg on Tuesday said he spoke to Obama and his chief of staff, Jack Lew, and told them the city would "love to have him, but we've got lots of things to do." Bloomberg said that he wasn't trying to "dis" the president and that his trip to New Jersey on Wednesday would represent the whole region.
Seems to me after visiting redcross.org that they are really trying to encourage financial donations and blood donations. Which makes sense--they would rather buy in volume and allocate in volume than try to manage the logistics of dealing with your 3 cans of split pea soup left in a donation box in Portland Oregon. Doing a food drive is a better photo op, so I understand why Romney did it. I'm a little surprised Obama chose to go back on the campaign trail. Not just because it opens him to criticism (out campaigning after just 2 days!) but because he was probably doing himself much more good appearing presidential in NJ than he does appearing like a candidate in Ohio.
That also something I don't get. I mean, if ever you needed a "Sorry, I'd love to play your silly campaign games, but I have big boy work to do now--I'm the leader of the free world" moment, it would seem to be this week.
I think people are missing the snopes link from the OP. Red Cross wants cash donations. They don't tell you they're not going to use the $10 you send them to help the people you want to help today. Giving canned goods means you can raid your pantry rather than having to come up with cash. And they actually need the canned goods in many places. They're without power to run refrigerators, you know. Oddly, MSNBC this morning had a first responder type on the phone and she was asking for canned goods to be air dropped (if necessary).
Yeah, but if you get 1000 (or however many it was) people to donate something (of their choosing), you're going to end up with a logistical nightmare. Donating bulk items is a different story. In fact the quote in your OP says What they are requesting sounds more like a pallet of can goods, not a bunch of people filling a pallet with all of their random donations.
The only logistical nightmare is the roads are flooded so getting food everywhere it may be needed is a challenge.
But don't you think distributing huge quantities of a handful of items is much more efficient than small quantities of thousands of different items? I'm not saying this was purely a political move, but there is valid reasons to why they wouldn't want individuals to organize donations in this manner. Even the quote you use as proof supports this.
Further proof that this election needs to be over and done with: we are discussing whether uniform pallets or mixed pallets of canned goods is an appropriate response in a hurricane situation.
not at all. walk into your local food bank. ther recieve randon donations to large lots. they break it down for distribution.
There were other food drives for the hurricane victims, FWIW. I don't think "efficient" has any meaning here. It's obviously best to get the food to where it needs to be. Sorting it is a small detail vs. people starving waiting for it to be ordered, delivered, sorted, etc.
I'm just saying why it makes sense for the Red Cross to want either bulk volume of items or money vs. normal food donations. That is probably how they have planned to deal with massive relief efforts and therefore that is how they are best suited to provide help. I wasn't trying to say Romney is evil for asking for people to bring food/supplies or that he wasn't helping with the relief effort. If I was voting for him, or on the fence, this wouldn't sway me one way or the other.
