Hurricane Gustav and the GOP

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Every four years, Americans traditionally tune into the presidential campaigns around Labor Day.

Last week, Democrats got four days in the sun. This week, Republicans got a hurricane.

Hurricane Gustav is horrible news for the citizens of the Gulf Coast who are evacuating from their homes and facing another round of devastation just three years after Katrina.

It’s also bad news for the Republicans, right? Maybe, maybe not.

Democrats are flying high following their successful convention in Denver. It delivered the first African American presidential candidate for a major party. Obama’s extravaganza was a blend of glitz and emotion.

John McCain’s surprise choice of an obscure governor as his running mate, Alaska’s Sarah Palin, made Democrats jubilant.

Now, the joke is that God must be a Democrat, since Gustav eclipsed the start of the Republican National Convention today.

But it’s way too soon for Democrats to pop the champagne. McCain’s campaign raised $7 million in one day after the Palin announcement, and Republican delegates gathered here are energized by McCain’s surprise choice.

Democrats don’t hold the franchise on history anymore. Republicans may make history with the first woman vice president.

“She would bring such a different perspective to Washington,” said Luellen Robertson of Bluffton, S.C. “I think she’ll take on (Democratic vice presidential nominee) Joe Biden and make him look like hamburger.”

Robertson and others see Palin’s selection as a sign that McCain is serious about reforming government. Palin has a reputation in her short tenure as governor for fighting special interests.

It’s also far from certain that Republicans will suffer come November because they exercised restraint in September. On Sunday, McCain pulled the plug on all political speeches scheduled for today.

“This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans,” he said.

My guess is a lot of people wish it wouldn’t take a hurricane to turn off the spigot of political rhetoric.

To be sure, McCain didn’t have any choice. The last thing Republicans want is to remind people how badly the Bush administration bungled the response to Hurricane Katrina. And partying while a natural disaster swept across the South would look bad.

Still, McCain took charge and made a virtue of necessity.

While he didn’t ask the sponsors of parties in the Twin Cities to cancel them, he did ask for everybody to be respectful of what’s happening in the Gulf.

There’s something appealing about a presidential candidate who can see beyond the end of his own nose. McCain has always talked about rallying people to a cause greater than themselves. If he does that with storm victims this week, it could work to his political advantage.

Labor Day wasn’t supposed to be like this — not for the Gulf Coast or for the Republicans. But the natural disaster may not be a political disaster for the GOP.

What do you think? E-mail mmercer@mediageneral.com or comment at mgwashington.com.