[guest post by Dana]

Today found Donald Trump and Mike Pence in Louisiana where residents welcomed them to their flooded and ravaged state. Trump spent several hours talking to residents, passing out food and supplies, and encouraging those who lost their homes to the flood. It was a smart move by the campaign. The optics were great, and his presence effectively highlighted the notable absences of Hillary Clinton and President Obama.

Amusingly, given how the front page of the New York Times and the Washington Post are continually littered with Trump stories of a particular sort, this one didn’t make the front-page cut.

Trump’s visit comes on the heels of a blistering editorial by Baton Rouge’s newspaper, The Advocate. The editors took President Obama to task for his hypocrisy, and for failing to visit the state in its time of need:

Now that the flood waters ravaging Louisiana are receding, it’s time for President Barack Obama to visit the most anguished state in the union.

Last week, as torrential rains brought death, destruction and misery to Louisiana, the president continued his vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, a playground for the posh and well-connected.

We’ve seen this story before in Louisiana, and we don’t deserve a sequel. In 2005, a fly-over by a vacationing President George W. Bush became a symbol of official neglect for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The current president was among those making political hay out of Bush’s aloofness.

[Flashback, 1964: Listen to phone conversation between Sen. Russell Long and President Johnson as the senator begs for the president’s help.]

Sometimes, presidential visits can get in the way of emergency response, doing more harm than good. But we don’t see that as a factor now that flood waters are subsiding, even if at an agonizing pace. It’s past time for the president to pay a personal visit, showing his solidarity with suffering Americans.

Like his predecessors, Obama has no doubt discovered that crises keep their own calendar, even when commanders-in-chief are trying to take some time off the clock. It’s an inconvenience of the presidency, but it’s what chief executives sign up for when they take the oath of office.

And if the president can interrupt his vacation for a swanky fundraiser for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, as he did on Monday, then surely he can make time to show up for a catastrophe that’s displaced thousands.

…

The optics of Obama golfing while Louisiana residents languished in flood waters was striking. It evoked the precedent of the passive federal response to the state’s agony in 2005, a chapter of history no one should ever repeat.

Coincidentally, the White House announced this afternoon that President Obama would be visiting the state on Tuesday. After his vacation officially ends:

“The President is mindful of the impact that his travel has on first responders and wants to ensure that his presence does not interfere with ongoing recovery efforts,” the White House said.

“He is also eager to get a first-hand look at the impact of the devastating floods, hear from more officials about the response, including how the federal government can assist and tell the people of Louisiana that the American people will be with them as they rebuild their community and come back stronger than ever,” the White House said.

Oh, how it must have stung for someone as arrogant and smug as President Obama to be shown up by the likes of Donald Trump.

Interestingly, and also coincidentally, there is a big 70th birthday bash planned for Bill Clinton tonight on Martha’s Vineyard. Exactly where President Obama is currently vacationing and fundraising for Hillary.

As for Hillary, she has nothing on her official schedule until Monday. But lest you think she doesn’t give a rip about the crisis in Louisiana, she tweeted her concern . But even she realized that was a really lame effort, especially in light of Trump making an actual visit to the devastated region, so she upped the ante and published a Facebook post as well.

ADDED: That time Obama criticized President Bush for surveying the Katrina’s destruction from a plane and not on the ground:

We can talk about levees that couldn’t hold, a FEMA that seemed not just incompetent but paralyzed and powerless, about a president who only saw the people from the window of an airplane instead of down here on the ground.”

This from the White House media pool:

At 11:25 am on this bright clear day, the motorcade was on the move. We passed a few walkers and bikers who waved as the president went by.

At 11:40 am, POTUS arrived at Farm Neck Golf Club.

–Dana

Politico (cached link; no links for bullies):

Paul Manafort on Friday resigned as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, after the Republican presidential nominee earlier this week announced a new leadership structure for his campaign.

“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign. I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success,” Trump said in a statement.

Trump’s campaign on Wednesday announced a shakeup, its second in as many months, with the addition of Breitbart executive Stephen Bannon as campaign CEO and the promotion of pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager.

Bring back Corey! Let Trump Be Trump!!!1!

This is what I’d call an admission:

It’s about as clear an admission as you’ll ever get. We weren’t giving them the money until we got the prisoners.

Put that together with the Iranian government’s view — “Iranian press reports have quoted senior Iranian defense officials describing the cash as a ransom payment,” reported the Wall Street Journal — and you have a ransom payment.

But at Vox, Zack Beauchamp patiently explains to you dummies about how this wasn’t a ransom payment, no way, no how. His Voxsplainer is titled The US did not pay a $400 million “ransom” to Iran. Here’s what actually happened, you idiots. OK, I added the “you idiots” part, but it was implied.

“State Department spokesman John Kirby … said the U.S. withheld the delivery of the cash as leverage until Iran permitted the Americans to leave the country,” the AP’s Klepper reports.

This information, however, doesn’t amount to evidence of a ransom. Remember, the US had already agreed to pay Iran that money as part of the settlement. The only question was timing.

What happened is that the US chose to postpone the payment it had already promised to make until it was sure Iran was upholding the prisoner release deal. Iran wasn’t getting any additional money in exchange for prisoners (it actually got prisoners in exchange for prisoners). The US government just decided it couldn’t trust Iran, necessarily, so it withheld following through on the arms deal settlement until it was sure Iran was cooperating on the prisoner deal.

See, the not-ransom payers weren’t paying a ransom to the not-kidnappers. No, sir! All that happened was, the not-ransom payers withheld delivery of the not-ransom money until the not-kidnappers gave up their un-hostages. The ransom payers simply chose to postpone delivering the not-ransom money until it could be sure that the non-kidnappers gave up the un-hostages.

It’s all so simple when it’s Voxsplained.

What a pussy, am I right? (I didn’t want to say it. That lady over there said it. I’m just repeating it.)

It’s Trump 2.0. He regrets unspecified things!

Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that. And believe it or not, I regret it. And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues.

I, for one, believe Big Media will accept this and move on. I believe they will never press him, day after day, about what, precisely, he supposedly regrets.

Oh, wait: I don’t actually believe that at all.