Earlier this month Stuart Shepard, correspondent for the Focus on the Family network (you know, that OTHER religious gathering in Colorado), had a segment in which he less than half-jokingly asked prayers for torrential rains to inundate Invesco Field during last night’s acceptance speech by Obama. God would want that, Shepard said (as you can see here), given that millions of unborn lives and the institution of marriage are at stake. It would send a message, he said. 

You’d think that after all those Falwell-Robertson et al gaffes over the years about hurricanes as God’s wrath on Florida, or New Orleans, or wherever, they’d have learned. And the criticism was such that Focus on the Family did pull the video a few days later. Perhaps that was a mistake, as the weather was beautiful last night.

Or could it be that karma is more powerful than James Dobson? According to the Washington Post this morning, GOP officials are so concerned with the prospect of Tropical Storm Gustav swamping New Orleans while the party parties in Minneapolis–echoes of Bush’s Katrina debacle–that they may delay the start of the convention, and President Bush could even cancel his appearance Monday night. That could only be a good thing for McCain.

Meanwhile, the Exodus replays itself (my in-laws among the refugees), as we have learned some lessons three years after Katrina, even if we have yet to fix anything.