When Did the Weather Become Political?

We are not so good at predicting calamities, but I am getting better and better at predicting dustups between Democrats and Republicans.

Anderson Cooper was standing in the middle of the street in Time Square when Hurricane Irene was downgraded from a category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm.  Cooper, for a fleeting and delightful moment, lost a measure of his celebrated cool.  “You mean this is the worst of it?”  He was sharing a split screen with the CNN correspondent who was assigned to deliver the status of the 400-mile-wide weather monster to the poor fools who were out standing in some part of the New York City geography, waiting, I guess, to be blown into the middle of next week.

At that moment, I chuckled.  Somebody is going to make a federal case out of the fact that everybody failed to be killed who didn’t chose to heed the mandatory evacuations, I said to no one in particular.  This was Saturday, the day Irene made her way up to the Big Apple to toy with the media.

The next morning all the Sunday talkfests were attempting to discuss the aftermath of Irene’s traipse up the eastern seaboard.  I was writing an op-ed for a California operative, with only half an ear on the pundit drone emanating from the TV.  I looked up just in time to hear the dour George Will characterize the media’s rather breathless coverage of the pre-Irene preparations as “synthetic hysteria.”  Apparently, Mr. Will thinks the pinko liberal media types were all about manufacturing drama around what amounted to a – what? – disappointing hurricane that only killed a measly 20 people. I think I even detected signs of a little smile around the taut corners of Will’s mouth.
I know, George.  It was all Obama’s fault.  He failed to lead, so Irene lost her bearings.

I cannot for the life of me understand why anybody aspires to be a meteorologist.  I don’t even know why they are called meteorologists, since there is seldom any apparent involvement of meteors in the so-called science of predicting the future.  That’s all it really is.  Which totally explains why these poor wind-swept, slicker-wearing brave souls who risk their lives to stand in front of a raindrop speckled lens get it so wrong so often.  Of course they do.  They are predicting the behavior of the most quixotic element of the earth’s atmosphere. 


What the hell is the matter with people?  Would they feel better about all the coverage if we had five or six more New Orleans-like tragedies?  They think because the authorities decided to shut down several of the countries largest cities they are all a bunch of namby pamby wusses? 

I say we have a little more respect for the media’s efforts to save the lives of as many people as possible, even if some of those people are too cynical to appreciate it.