I am writing this early. I have been listening to NPR since I woke at 5. At this point details are sketchy and are likely to remain so until sunrise, but evidently, from what we know, Sandy did indeed evolve into a megastorm. Lower Manhattan is dark and the subways are flooded, there are reports of widespread destruction, and there is a foot of snow in the mountains, with more to come. The sheer extent of this storm is breathtaking; it is a thousand miles wide.
Here in Ohio, yesterday was anticlimactic. We were expecting high winds and hard rain, and what we got was pretty much an ordinary rainy Autumn day. There were gusts of wind- I narrowly missed being hit by a falling tree limb- but for the most part, little of the drama we were preparing for. Today the forecast is much like yesterday’s, and schools are closed.
Although at this early point it doesn’t look like Sandy is going to rival Katrina in terms of human lives lost, she may well outdo her in terms of total devastation.
Either way, this is Obama’s Katrina.
And it is also Mr Romney’s Katrina.
He has switched campaign stops into fundraising drives for the victims of the storm. One would think that the fact that he not so long ago said that federal disaster relief was a waste of money might come back to haunt him, but that would be an 
underestimation of his powers of recreating himself. The man has held irreconcilable positions on any number of issues; his principles, if any, are pliant. He has, it appears, no principles, only drives: drives for money and for power.
Indeed, it has recently occurred to me that this may not be all bad. If elected he will govern not ideologically but pragmatically, which may well mitigate the damage he will do, and may even lead to some good.
Lord have mercy, on our nation and on our sorry leaders.
Caelum Et Terra 