Joe Biden update: He safely escapes Hurricane Alex
After a day of braving distant waves and winds, Vice President Joe Biden is safe and sound after escaping from the Gulf coast area just in time as Hurricane Alex, formerly known as Tropical Storm Alex, bears down on Texas and Mexico.
Biden spent all of Tuesday sort of near the path of the possibly killer but-no-one-really-knows storm to demonstrate the Democratic Obama administration's continuing commitment to continuing to visit the continuing oil spill.
More than two months after the deadly explosion and fire on an offshore BP oil rig, some 60,000 barrels a day continue to escape subterranean confinement a mile beneath the gulf surface, despite a continuing series of White House meetings, daily briefings, phone calls and a continuing flow of news releases.
President Obama has already visited the area four times for briefings, photo ops and to examine the sand. So Biden has some serious visit-catching-up to do.
Tuesday the man, who was senator when Obama was just in sixth grade, visited New Orleans and was photographed with residents who have suffered damages from the spill.
"That $20-billion fund, that's not a ceiling," Biden told the cameras. "BP is required to pay whatever it is [that] falls under their responsibility, whether it ends up being $25, $30, $40 or $50 billion." Biden is also trying to make sense of conflicting federal regulations that permit some commercial fishing but not the sale of the catches.
Oil recovery operations were suspended due to high wind and wave conditions caused, not by Biden's visit but by the passing storm. According to the White House, National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Federal On-Scene Coordinator Rear Admiral James Watson, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao were on hand to watch Biden talk about the spill, which continued anyway.
Later, Biden visited the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla. and then on to a very nice dinner near Tampa in the home of Gen. David Petraeus, who Obama named the new troop commander last week in Afghanistan after a different kind of leak.
Concern for Biden's schedule mounted throughout the day because Wednesday his entire public workload involves flying to Ohio for a Cleveland fundraiser to help Democrat candidate Lee Fisher. He's in a continuing tight race with the GOP's former Rep. Rob Portman for the Senate seat being vacated by George Voinivich.
Obama will also flee Washington on Wednesday for a visit to Racine, Wis., of all places.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Photo: Getty Images (file).
To bad his plane wasn't delayed
Posted by: Joe Dumb | June 30, 2010 at 07:13 AM
Oh please!!!! this man was in Louisiana and the storm barely a 1 is hitting the mexico / texas border. no where close to where this clown was campaining.
Posted by: Lynette Johnston | June 30, 2010 at 08:11 AM
I started reading and thought this was from The Onion. Oh well...
(AM responds: Hey, thanks. Those guys are great. Good to be in such company. And have you here too.)
Posted by: Riley Kinney | June 30, 2010 at 11:14 AM
"He safely escapes Hurricane Alex" is such melodramatic sensationalism. Hurricane Alex will, at this writing, most likely make landfall over 600 miles away, somewhere in Mexico. That's about two thirds the distant he "escaped" to. I live in San Antonio, over 400 miles away and still in the same state that Hurricane Alex will miss by some 100 miles. Maybe I could get a citizen funded plane to fly me from the clutches of desaster.
Posted by: B Baker | June 30, 2010 at 05:29 PM
I have to support too.
Posted by: jordan shoes | July 01, 2010 at 02:50 AM
I also thought this was from The Onion, especially when reading this paragraph:
More than two months after the deadly explosion and fire on an offshore BP oil rig, some 60,000 barrels a day continue to escape subterranean confinement a mile beneath the gulf surface, despite a continuing series of White House meetings, daily briefings, phone calls and a continuing flow of news releases.
Does the author seriously believe that "meetings, briefings, phone calls and news releases" will stop the leaking oil well?
Posted by: Serious Lee | July 01, 2010 at 08:27 PM