Sandy: Is FEMA a 'Failure'?

We're reaching the point in the Hurricane Sandy response effort where patience is going to run out with the lack of electricity and gasoline, and the overall magnitude of the recovery challenge. That's when you can expect the good feeling about FEMA, President Obama and the overall federal effort to change -- possibly dramatically.

An early signal: on Fox News this morning, former New York City mayor (and Republican presidential candidate) Rudy Giuiliani said the overall response effort has been "abysmal."

“FEMA is as much a failure now as at the time of Katrina,” he said, alleging that preparations in advance of the disaster were inadequate. 

You can dismiss that as election-eve politicking, designed to stem some of the advantage Obama has gained by getting the chance to appear presidential in the response effort, which shifted attention away from Mitt Romney's focus on the economy. But it's a chorus that may spread after the election, if efforts to get life back to something approximating normal in the Northeast don't start to have an effect quickly.