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Jewish World Review Oct. 31, 2012/ 15 Mar-Cheshvan, 5773 Passing as president: Will the electorate see through the presidential pose? By Roger Simon
His swift reaction to a major disaster coupled with a shrewd calculation to stop personally campaigning in order to supervise the relief effort from the Oval Office have provided him with one thing he has most needed since his first debate: the opportunity to look presidential.
I wrote before the first presidential debate that Mitt Romney had won most of his primary debates by looking the most presidential on stage. I also said that this was going to be difficult with a real president on stage.
I was wrong about that last point. The debate proved so damaging to Obama not because he looked bumbling or intellectually inferior to his opponent -- he didn't -- but because he simply didn't look like a president fighting for re-election. His failings at the debate fed into a narrative that has existed since he first campaigned in 2007: He can appear aloof, cold, academic and bloodless.
And he did so in the debate against a man who looks like a president and has become used to playing one on TV.
People who were lukewarm to Obama (and there are a lot of them) came away thinking: "What's so wrong with Mitt Romney? He seems harmless enough."
With more than 67 million people watching, it was a bad night for Obama to have a bad night, and he has been trying to recover ever since.
Strong performances in the second and third debates helped Obama, and Romney squandered an enormous opportunity by launching a parsing attack on Obama's rhetoric about the handling of the killing of U.S. diplomats in Benghazi instead of a real attack on what went wrong. (More about that in a future column.)
But Sandy has been the real godsend. That's terrible to say, considering all the human suffering it has caused, but politics is politics. And the politics of Sandy has helped Obama.
First, the Democrats have been effective in publicizing Romney's past opposition to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In June 2011, John King asked Romney at a CNN primary debate whether states rather than the federal government should take on the more significant role in disaster relief.
"Absolutely," Romney replied. "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that's even better."
The thought of private companies providing disaster relief for profit rather than the federal government rushing immediate aid to victims seems neither sensible, effective nor humane, however.
But Romney, pressed further by King, put it all on a dollar and cents basis.
"We cannot -- we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids," he said. "It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before it's paid off. It makes no sense at all."
Which is the problem of businessmen candidates. They view government as merely an enormous business. It is not. Government does not exist to maximize profit; it exists to help people.
And when disasters like Sandy strike, people realize that more keenly.
Which is why Romney is now so tight-lipped about his comments on FEMA.
On Tuesday, his traveling press pool asked repeatedly as to whether he would eliminate FEMA should he become president. Repeatedly he ignored them.
This is from one pool report:
"He (Romney) went over to the crates of water and began loading them into the truck. 'Governor, are you going to eliminate FEMA?' a print pooler shouted, receiving no response. Romney continued loading up the truck. Wires reporters asked more questions about FEMA that were ignored. Romney kept coming over near pool to pick up more water. He ignored these questions: 'Governor, are you going to see some storm damage?' 'Governor, has Chris Christie invited you to come survey storm damage?' 'Governor, you've been asked 14 times, why are you refusing to answer the question?'"
Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, has been lavish in his praise for Obama and FEMA in recent days.
He has called Obama "outstanding" and said that Obama "deserves great credit."
"He gave me his number at the White House and told me to call him if I needed anything," Christie also said.
Christie told Fox News that Obama has helped "tremendously."
"He's been very attentive, and anything that I've asked for, he's gotten to me," Christie said. "So, I thank the president publicly for that. He's done -- as far as I'm concerned -- a great job for New Jersey."
Fox News' Steve Doocy asked if there was "any possibility that Gov. Romney may go to New Jersey to tour some of the damage with you."
"I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested," Christie replied. "If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don't know me."
But Obama does care about presidential politics, and so does Romney, and so far, Sandy has blown a lot of good political news Obama's way.
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