A perfect storm to make or unmake a presidency

Calamities and disasters are nature’s way to test the competence and character of men and women, especially the leaders of people and nations. That Superstorm Sandy, the most devastating perhaps that ever hit the most populated region of USA, the world’s most powerful nation came just a few days before its presidential elections. That major disaster, much more destructive than Katrina, had an unprecedented size of 1000 miles from the Carribean to the edges of Canada, its raging waters surging as high as 13.88 feet in New York, killing more than 120, and destroying properties easily worth more than US $ 20 billion. The labor front here is concerned because we have more than half a million OFWs in New York, New Jersey, Washington, Virginia and the nearby states facing the Atlantic.

While our Ambassador Jose Cuisia and our Labor Attache Minda G. Padilla, who are both based in Washington, DC, were quick to issue statements that no Filipino has been hurt, we had to contact our friends and relatives in Jersey City, Hoboken, and in Staten Island, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx and other areas. By ‘’hurt’’, they might just have meant physically and fatally. But I have direct testimonies of friends and relatives who were financially and materially hurt, their homes totally destroyed and their cars and other properties in total wreck. The Philippine government has donated US $ 250,000 to the American Red Cross, a small but symbolic expression of our gratitude to the American people who have always helped us in ONDOY, and in many calamities of our own.

The thrust of this column today is to stress that Superstorm Sandy has become President Obama’s tipping point. It has become the crucial event that defined to the whole nation who he really is. It has shown to the millions of the middle class Americans, many former Filipino citizens included, that they have a President who has put the interests of the people over and above the demands of politics. He has abandoned all his political rallies and campaign schedules. He went to the heart of New Jersey and embraced sobbing women who lost their children, men who were shocked at the sudden and unthinkable devastation, and children who were terrified by the onslaught of winds and waters that could traumatized them. Sandy was Obama’s perfect storm that could have decided the results of the elections.

New Jersey’s Governor Christ Christie, a die-hard Republican and an avid campaigner for Mitt Romney, was so generous in his praises for President Obama and the manner with which the President made Federal support to New Jersey, not only accessible but urgently available. On the other hand, Romney was well-known for his stand, consistent with the long-standing position of the GOP that the states, not the Federal Government, should take responsibility in managing crises brought about by disasters like Sandy and Katrina. Those words spoken by a political foe have proven the Democrats’ consistent record of the National government’s utmost concern for the safety, health, well-being and rehabilitation of the affected families and individuals.

In the Philippines, the people always assess the greatness of any incumbent President on the manner he or she manages the nation’s response to a national calamity, how he or she is able to act with a sense of urgency and decisiveness, how visible and accessible he or she is to the people, and how he or she shares in the pains, anguish and agony of those whose loved ones have perished. We should recall how President Cory Aquino led the nation during the Pinatubo eruption and how she stood firm and brave viz-a-viz the seven ‘’coup d’ etat’’, mounted by some who thought that a woman could not lead a nation. She proved them wrong and survived to annoint her successor, FVR, the one that they could not harass, hoodwink nor terrorize.

In the USA, the Democrats have better records of managing crises and disasters. Franklin D Roosevelt saved the USA from both the Second World War and the Great Depression. J F Kennedy led the nation in the Bay of Pigs crisis with Cuba and Russia. Bill Clinton turned the economy and had a record of lowest unemployment rate in all history. That is why, even with his sexual proclivity and his colorful and often lurid romances with women of all sorts, perhaps paralleled  only by JFK, both his wife and the whole nation could just look the other way. The Republican is the party for business.

The Democrats is for the workers, the immigrants, the veterans, the poor and the victims of disasters and calamities. That Superstorm therefore was the divine intervention to break the neck-to-neck contest for the Presidency. The undecided have found the tipping point. My parents and siblings who are now US citizens have changed their minds. They have already mailed their votes. For, in the words of my 85-year old mom, Obama has been given the blessings from above.  And she has never been wrong in her pronouncement.