The GOP thrives in darkness.
That explains why Gustav is good for the GOP. Think about it. The GOP liked nothing better than trying to draw attention to all the Democratic policies they think people will not like. But when it comes to their own convention, they now get the best of all worlds.
They can write a platform that completely panders to the base. They can fete their conservative heroes (GHWB, GWB, DC, KR, etc.). They can honor whoever they want. People will not know because there is no media coverage. They can stress their abortion stand, take on judges, 'fiscal policies', etc.
They can do all this without taking any kind of political hit because no one is paying attention.
They even get to go further. They can dispatch whatever moderates they have to go help with Gustav while they firm up their right-wing policies.
The GOP convention was supposed to be the time when we could point to all of McCain's actual unpopular positions that people are unaware of. Now we do not get to do that - well because there's hurricane on...
So Gustav is a good thing for them.
- They get to show how good they are at helping people in need.
- They get to show a bunch of helpful Republicans helping out.
- They get to blame Democrats for all the things that went wrong during Rita/Katrina.
- They get to confirm their intolerant, unpopular policies with the base at the GOP. Because although they cannot take care of more than one of the people's business items at a time, they can take care of their own agenda with fantastic efficiency.
- Karl must be shouting for Joy with this.
The gift keeps on giving.
After Gustav, if we try to point out that McCain is anti-abortion, they will point to him handing out water bottles or watching a storm-track display.
They will paint McCain/Palin as the candidates who will 'fix' DC and make it work for you.
EDIT:
I do not appear to have made my point (if I am reading the commentaries correctly).
I think a Democracy thrives on sunlight. During the Democratic convention, all our policies were out there for all to see. And for the GOP to attack. And for us to clarify properly. Thankfully this time, our chief advocate (Sen. Obama) is gifted with his elucidation of some of our more nuanced stances. We believe that people would support us if they really knew what we stood for. Fine.
My point in this diary is that many in the GOP know (or at least accept) that many people would not support them if they really knew what their policies were. We know of many such instances. Just as we know of many of McCain's positions that - if people just were aware of them - would cause his support to collapse. Gustav makes it possible for them to confirm what they want to say to those who show up ('power base of party') while still hiding these probably debilitating positions from others who only get the news from the MSM.
I think it is a fair possibility that this is how it will play out.
This is not a joke and I make no apologies for postulating this.
Lately I've been seeing more and more diaries attacked for being 'too speculative, too insubstantial, 'too flimsy'. This is, to me, a diary entry. It is what I'm wondering about. I get the feeling that I'm supposed to treat it as a soapbox and only fill it with goods suitable for public consumption.
As I noted in the comments, it sucks that this whole brouhaha will surely take attention away from the lives destroyed by Gustav/Hanna and place it on George/John.