Obama to visit Christie, not Bloomberg
Political storms indeed make strange bedfellows.
President Obama will review Hurricane Sandy damage Wednesday with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican and frequent Obama critic.
Obama will not be going to neighboring New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- a self-styled independent who has been both complimentary and critical of Obama -- said this is not the time for a presidential visit to the Big Apple.
New York City would "love to have him, but we've got lots of things to do," said Bloomberg, who spoke Tuesday with White House chief of staff Jack Lew.
Bloomberg also praised the federal response to the disaster: "You know, there was a lot of criticism with (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) back in the (Hurricane) Katrina days, and today, you hear nothing but good things about FEMA, and they certainly have been very helpful to us."
From the White House: "We called to let Mayor Bloomberg know that we planned to travel to New Jersey and to ask if he concurred with our assessment that tomorrow would not be the right time to visit New York City. As with any trip to a disaster zone, we are in touch with officials before traveling to make sure we do not draw any assets away from response activities."
Christie, a major supporter of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has been effusive in his praise of Obama during the storm.
"The president has been outstanding in this," Christie said on Tuesday.
Obama and Christie also did a storm tour last year in the wake of Hurricane Irene.
Wednesday, the White House said, Obama "will join Governor Christie in viewing the storm damage, talking with citizens who are recovering from the storm and thanking first responders who put their lives at risk to protect their communities."
The storm has give Obama what some call a "commander-in-chief moment."
But his actions can't help but be viewed in a political context, less than a week before Election Day -- and no one knows if it will help him at the polls, or have no effect.
As noted above, the storm has scrambled traditional politics.