Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo will accompany President Obama on his tour of ravaged areas in New York on Thursday.

Expect a hostile reception especially in the Irish Rockaways, the people that New York forgot, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Talking to people there the sense of betrayal is very real. “We feel utterly betrayed by the government” said one Rockaway Irish resident to me today.

The anger will not be aimed specifically at the president but for the two polls with him.

The Irish communities in Rockaway and Breezy Point have been devastated by this tragedy and the

Mayor and governor have not impressed them in this crisis.

Both came out talking a big game but failed to deliver. The result is widespread homelessness, no heat or light and people going hungry in New York.

The two pols did hold a lot of self-congratulatory press conferences though, deferring to each other as the disaster management geniuses they really seemed to believe they were.

Yet it took Bloomberg well over a week to figure out what Governor Christie in New Jersey quickly figured out. The gas shortage would lead to long lines and alternate day filling up was the smart move.

Then there was Bloomberg’s ridiculous decision to go ahead with the New York City marathon when the city was still grieving and bleeding from Sandy.

Cuomo was throwing threats at the Long Island Power Company telling them to shape up. When they didn’t he – well he huffed and puffed and did nothing.

As The New York Post noted:
“Now Cuomo’s searching out the guilty parties — but he would do well to look in the mirror before he travels too far down that road.”

Turns out Cuomo has ignored filling vacancies on LIPA’s board and refused to act after Newsday reported that LIA was in dire condition and totally unprepared for a hurricane.

The impact of all that will be clear to President Obama when he visits and sees the continuing tragedy unfold.

If the two men with him hang back and give him the spotlight it may not be political modesty, rather self-survival.