Looking, Sounding, Acting Presidential

The NYT has a story about Obama 's response to Gustav. The news has been covering the fact that McCain and Palin are traveling down to the area because Palin's "executive experience could be useful." And not for political reasons?

When asked about it, Obama did not rise to the political bait and responded that he will use his donor and volunteer list to help:

“We can activate an e-mail list of a couple million people who want to give back,” Mr. Obama told reporters after leaving services at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Lima. “I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary.”

He will not be traveling to the coast out of concern that he might interfere with the emergency efforts:

“The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of a storm,” Mr. Obama said, “is whether we’re drawing resources away from folks on the ground because the Secret Service and various security requirements sometimes it pulls police, fire and other departments away from concentrating on the job.”

He added, “I’m assuming that where he (John McCain) went that wasn’t an issue. We’re going to try to stay clear of the area until things have settled down and then we’ll probably try to figure out how we can be as helpful as possible.”

Thanks for keeping your promise to keep the campaign focused on the big issues and not the little stuff1