The Obama Nashville Scandal
by Randall Terry
May 17, 2010
OPINION, (christiansunite.com) -- It is now glaringly obvious that President Obama has offered little moral support to the citizens of Nashville Tennessee and the surrounding areas that have been devastated by the recent flood.Has the President visited the area? No. Has he done a "fly by?" No. Has he held a press conference discussing this tragedy, and the valor of those who are rebuilding? No.
The obvious question is, why? Why has the Obama administration all but ignored one of the largest non- hurricane disasters in American history?
Is the death toll not high enough? Are the citizens too self- reliant? Was there not enough rioting? Were there not enough suffering minorities?
Could it be that any involvement he had would not bring him much personal credit for "fixing" the crisis? Is it because there was not a big enough political payoff?
Is it because he lost Tennessee in 2008? Or perhaps he just hates country music.
Whatever the reason for his absence, it is scandalous.
The role that Nashville plays in our country's history, folklore, entertainment, culture, and especially the music that makes us laugh and love and weep is singularly unique.
For that reason alone Obama should have been on the ground offering his heartfelt sympathy, condolences, and admiration for the valor shown by those in the crisis.
Instead he is conspicuously absent, focusing on oil and its political fallout in the Gulf of Mexico.
A key secondary insult in this debacle is that the national press has all but ignored the depth of the crisis Tennesseans are facing.
I started calling friends and family asking them if they knew what was happening in Nashville. Almost none of them did. The story has not dominated the news in the DC/New York corridor; for that matter, it has barely been covered.
The net result of that is that hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans are suffering significant hardship, dozens are dead and missing, and most Americans are clueless. The benefit concert that was held to raise money for the victims of this flood was ignored by the national media.
Why? Because Obama ignored it.
All President Obama has to do is visit Nashville, or even fly Air Force One over Nashville, and hold a press conference in the air, and it will change the entire equation. Then the New York Times and the Washington Post and the major TV networks will give this tragedy the coverage it deserves.
