Der Standard: Blame Obama for Hurricane Sandy Devastation

The east coast of the United States is reeling from Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath.  The Republican governor of New Jersey, which took a direct hit from Sandy, is praising President Obama for his leadership and swift action in providing emergency storm relief.  But, according to the Austrian daily Der Standard, all of this terrible damage could have been avoided if Obama were a better president: 

Die amerikanische Infrastruktur ist in einem für ein so hochtechnologisiertes Land gefährlich schlechten Zustand. Es bedarf gar keiner chinesischer Superhacker, um die Stromversorgung in weiten Teilen der USA abzudrehen. Es genügen auch ein paar auf Oberleitungen gefallene Bäume, damit sieben Millionen Menschen an der Ostküste tagelang ohne Energieversorgung dastehen. Das gilt nicht nur bei einem Ereignis der Größenordnung Sandys, ähnliche Zustände sind auch bei viel geringeren Stürmen an der Tagesordnung. Der Grund dafür ist schlichtweg, dass die Stromleitungen oberirdisch verlaufen. [...] Obamas größtes Versäumnis der vergangenen vier Jahre war es indes, die Amerikaner nicht davon zu überzeugen, dass es eben auch eine Bundesregierung braucht, die Entscheidungen gegen individuelle Interessen und für das höhere Gemeinwohl trifft - ob es nun um die Gesundheitsreform geht, den Katastrophenschutz, Infrastrukturprojekte von nationalem Interesse oder die Kreditwirtschaft.

("The American infrastructure is in a dangerously poor state of repair for such a highly technologised country. It doesn't take a Chinese super-hacker to switch off the power in large parts of the US. All it takes is for a couple of trees to fall on the power lines. ... The reason is simply that the power lines run above ground. No one wants to use (taxpayers') money to put them underground. They prefer to put up with a national emergency every time a big storm hits. ... Obama's biggest omission in the last four years was to fail to convince Americans that they need a federal government to make decisions against individual interests and for the common good - whether it be on healthcare reform, disaster control, infrastructural projects of national interest or the credit services sector.")

This criticism is wrong on so many levels.  First, power has been knocked out in New York City in part because the electrical infrastructure is UNDERGROUND which was flooded by the storm surge. Second, Sandy is the most powerful storm to hit the most populous region of the US.  I live 500 miles to the north of where Sandy made landfall and lost power due to the high winds.  Even if we had built a 20 foot seawall along 1000 miles of coastline it would have done little to slow the fury of the storm.  As for President Obama, he used a large chunk of his $750 billion stimulus package to upgrade and repair the US infrastructure.  Do I need to point out that this stimulus was opposed by EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN member of the US Congress?  And during the presidential campaign Obama is being excoriated for his "collectivist/socialist" stimulus? 

Perhaps Der Standard doesn't realize that the US is not a dictatorship where the president can simply impose his will on the public. 

Comments

[Hattie]

Wow. They are so wrong in so many ways. Glad you are O.K.
Now, about climate change...

[koogleschreiber]

Nevertheless the U.S. infrastructure is way behind the standards of most of the industrialized nations. An estimated 100 bn. dollars per year would be needed for major improvements in the supply of water, power and canalisation. Unfortunately, advocating this appears to be political suicide in the U.S.A. Americans rather accept widespread breakdowns even for much more marginal reasons like normal thunderstorms.

The Standard not only isn't completely wrong, he rather isn't completely right.