Borling reporting for duty: McCain, GOP putting country first

September 1st, 2008 at 12:34am Chuck Sweeny

Maj. Gen. John Borling, USAF ret., and a Rockford delegate for John McCain, phoned in Sunday night from St.Paul/Minneapolis at the Republican Convention:

“John Borling here, thought you’d like to hear it from me. I’m here at the convention center, “It’s amazing that the delegations here, many have traveled so far, and it’s amazing that all are putting country first, before party, following the lead of John McCain and Sarah Palin. It’s a testimony to their leadership.”

In case you’ve been on Mars, or in Chemung, he’s talking about the decision of McCain to scale back the GOP convention activities as Hurricane Gustav bears down on New Orleans. McCain thinks it would be bad form for his fellow Republicans to be speechifying and partying-down while winds and floods cover The Big Easy again.

Privately, GOP members have to be crossing their fingers and hoping that Gustav doesn’t wreak havoc on New Orleans, which would totally wreck their convention. If, as it looks now at 12:37 a.m. Monday, the hurricane hits 45 miles west of the city, they may be able to get events underway in full on Tuesday or Wednesday. Maybe they’ll extend the event for a day, but that’s hard to do because hotel and travel arrangements are difficult to change.

Preparations for Gustav are in marked contrast to the non-preparation for Katrina. This is in large part due to Louisiana’s new, Republican governor, Bobby Jindahl, who took the lead in deciding a total evacuation was needed, and in making sure that buses and trains were lined up to take people away, along with the road system. If the hurricane hits hard, and Jindahl shines through with efficient, fast action, he’ll be a hero, and that will go a long way to help Republicans including McCain.

By the way, the Bush administration is taking no chances this time. They’ve sent Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary, to Louisiana and Bush and Cheney both cancelled planned visits to the convention in St. Paul, where they were scheduled to speak tonight.

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