White House Gaggle

Briefer: Tony Fratto,

President’s Schedule:

At 9.45 am, President Bush is briefed on the Midwest flooding situations. At 10:20 am, the President meets with the Former Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in the Oval Office of the White House. This afternoon, President Bush will make remarks in honor of Black Music Month.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto will brief the press at 12.30 pm today.

Flooding in the Midwest

Fratto was asked if they know what kind of economical impact this will have; and he said that the President will hear about this in this morning’s meeting and Fratto will get a readout from it that will give us a better view. “Obviously the human cost is something that you cannot put a value on … the impact on agriculture is also very substantial.” It has been a very well integrated effort both on federal and local levels, Fratto said.

The President is traveling to the region on Thursday but no exact itinerary has been announced yet.
When asked about the 27 levees that are said to be at risk, Fratto was questioned about the President’s confidence in the job of the Army Corps of Engineering’s. He responded that the Corps takes this very seriously and maintaining levees around the country is one of their top priorities. We will wait to see what will come out of the meeting and the Corps will report on those levees and the ones that have broken this morning.

When asked about the impact on food cost that are already high, Frattos said that food prices are very volatile and it is too early to speculate, but Ed Lazear of the White House Economical Council as well as the Department of Agriculture are looking at this right now.

Fratto was asked if the President has been told by Administrator Paulison or others, that this flooding is on the scale comparable with Hurricane Katrina, and he responded that he had not heard that comparison. “I am not sure that anyone would make those kinds of comparisons between really different kinds of natural disasters. …It is a very large significant scale affecting tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, and we’ve got life lost and money lost. He continued: “Katrina and the hurricane that followed …was one of the all time unusual natural weather events that this or any country ever had to deal with. This flooding is significant and has been referred to as one in 500-year-flood.” Fratto also said; “I think that the team that is involved in this, clearly learned lots of lessons from Katrina, and I think that those lessons appear to be paying off.”

Furthermore, Fratto talked about the importance of communication, integration and being able to anticipate what the needs are going to be, in dealing any kind of natural disaster.


Israel and Hamas
When asked about a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas, Fratto said that he had not heard that.

Iowa City, IA

The damage and flooding in New Orleans, LA in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are the yardstick that many people refer to today when evaluating the destruction a large storm can leave behind. How many roads were closed, how many homes were flooded, how high did the water go, and what sort of lasting effect remains to be seen? Those are the questions that are asked, and the severity is frequently compared to NOLA to decide "how bad is it?"

The storm that left areas of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City flooded, is being referred to as "the Katrina of the Midwest." Crops were damaged, neighborhoods were flooded, and many were shocked to discover that yes, it can happen to you- you, too, can lose everything in the blink of an eye.

I flew to Chicago and drove a rented SUV to Iowa City. Along the way, because bridges were out and roads were closed, I was frequently diverted to side roads and at one point, the road was washed out entirely and my vehicle got stuck in a mud hole. It was pulled out by a very polite farmer named Dustin, using a very big, very green, and very noisy John Deere tractor. They did not seem surprised that I was going to Iowa City.

I had to stop in three places to get directions, even with a GPS, because of the roundabout route I was taking. One woman behind the counter told me she was very tired of people showing up as "lookie-loos" and taking pictures of drowned houses. She also fixed me with a withering look that could melt candle wax, when I asked her if she was following the politics in Washington at all.

I received that same incredulous look from three people today, all of whom refused to actually be interviewed. All three, however, told me the same type of answer: No, because what happens in Washington, does not apparently affect them in any way. A woman actually burst into laughter at the question, and added further that there is no reason for either of the candidates to show up in Iowa to show their support, because "what are they supposed to do, stand in front of the TV and emote for us?"

She, and others on the sidewalk that chimed in, agreed that money should not be spent on having either Senator McCain or Senator Obama show up to survey the damage done in Iowa. Iowa needs their money, they said, and Iowa will take care of its own.

Hillary's Plan B Problem

So as we’ve explained the Democratic caucus is an interesting affair where viability or having 15 percent of the caucus goers in support of a candidate. Without that 15 percent supporters are forced to either recruit other caucus goers or abandon their candidate and support another one. There’s a very slim chance here in Iowa that any of the second tier Democratic candidates will be overwhelmingly viable. Dennis Kucinich has already said that his supporters should caucus for Barack Obama if he proves not to be viable at their caucus. Now imagine if Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden all said that. Now, they haven’t but if the mentality of second tier candidate supporters is anti-Hillary, they might support Edwards or Obama should their candidate not prove viable. No one can foresee how much of a difference this will make, but depending on the pockets of Dodd, Richardson, Kucinich, and Biden supporters it could be large enough to land Hillary Clinton second or third overall in the state.

The effect of a spoiler third candidate in the general election can sometimes be enough to sway the race, imagine if there were three or four of them. Strategy, possible coming out of the second tier camps, will be the name of the game tonight

The Ron Paul Approach

Sure, he's a second tier candidate. No, his scrambling around today won't get him more votes of people who are teetering on the Republican side. Instead of shaking hands and kissing babies and running all over Iowa, Ron Paul is addressing a lecture hall of medical students at Des Moines University. Speaking as a doctor and a politician, Ron Paul is focusing on inflation and blames government policies for the rising cost of healthcare.

Ever a libertarian, for a reduced government Paul says, "Healthcare isn't a right. Housing isn't a right...You have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and hopefully someday you will have the right to keep what you earn." He's appealing to young people who are looking forward to the highest national debt in decades. He's appealing to older people who need expensive procedures like heart surgery or pricey prescription medications.

Paul's solution is closing down U.S. military bases abroad. The savings from running those, he proposes, will be enough to reduce the national debt. His tag line is "freedom." Free of choice, freedom of the market. He says that the Founding Fathers were right, we should stay out of foreign entanglements.

This is just another example of Paul, cool as a cucumber, staying out of the melee and doing something unexpected. Giving a lecture for students, some of whom are voting today, some who are not instead of scrambling around Iowa, vote shopping.

More photos from Iowa

Check out more Iowa photos on Flickr!