Like John Sides, John Allen isn't worried about the hurricane's effect on early voting. More generally: Garance Franke-Ruta notes Romney's primary debate comments on disaster response: Mitt Romney said America shouldn't be in the business of providing federal disaster relief and that it would be better for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's functions to be handled by individual states or even the private sector. Queried directly on the topic by CNN's John King during the June 13, 2011 Republican presidential primary debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, Romney said the federal government "cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids." Josh Marshall parses these comments: Many things that Romney said back during his severely conservative period I have little doubt are what he really believes. This one though is so nonsensical that I’d chalk it up more to his penchant for pandering and lack of character. But that’s a difficult excuse for Romney to use on his behalf and I suspect we’ll be hearing more about this pretty soon. Meanwhile, Scott Bomboy examines a 2007 study called "The Republicans Should Pray for Rain," which found that Republicans benefit from inclement weather:]]>