Haiti Photo-Op: Good Politics?

by Abatis on January 25th, 2010

J.D. Prose, a supposed “opinion writer” for my favorite fry grease absorber, the Beaver County Times, was beside himself yesterday. It seems U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan disappointed poor J.D. by not (yet) filing to run against Jason Altmire for the PA Fourth Congressional District house seat. Apparently Mister Prose desperately wants to see if Jason defeat another Republican woman for that particular post. And ol’ J.D. is positive that would happen ’cause, well gee willikers, no one could possibly defeat Jason now that the world’s seen those captivating pictures of Altmire kissing hands and shaking babies in Haiti.

After last week, who could blame her if she’s having second thoughts about trying to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason “Guardian Angel” Altmire? While Buchanan was planning a rescue mission, Altmire and, yes, good ol’ Gov. Ed Rendell went out and did it. [...] We don’t know if there’s enough campaign cash in the world to counter the priceless image of Altmire walking off that plane holding a Haitian orphan in his arms. (By the way, Altmire’s got nearly $1 million in cash waiting to be spent.) — J.D. Prose

Well J.D., last week’s Massachusetts election proved that some Americans are smarter than Democratic politicians give them credit for. And it wouldn’t take a lot of cash to counter the supposed priceless image of Altimre holding a Hatian orphan. All it would take is showing the first 1:40 of this clip:

For J. D. and any others who didn’t understand that…

…I agree with President Bush that we don’t need more people down there now unless they are literally delivering, providing food, water, shelter, medicine, medical care. It’s chaos. You’ve seen it on — you report it every night and every day.

And all of us should be helping, but the airport, it’s all they can do to manage the planes that they have to bring in and out of there. So I think that there are some — if you have a really good reason to go, you should go, otherwise everybody should stay. — Bill Clinton

Perhaps J.D. is terribly impressed with the grandstanding that was this visit by Altmire and Rendell. But those of us not mesmerized by a laser pointer on the wall are perfectly capable of recognizing a self-serving photo-op when we see one. This most definitely was one. Even if the pols from PA were legitimately trying to help, those smarter than they (Bush and Clinton) strongly suggested they stay away.

Oh, and J.D.? You aren’t going to catch that little red dot so stop trying. My cat figured that out a long time ago.