Political storms: Presidents use politics to decide disaster funding

In the days after the largest measurable tornado in America chewed up and swallowed their southwest Kansas town, survivors picked their way through debris to catch a glimpse of the president as he surveyed the wreckage.

His shirt sleeves rolled up, George W. Bush chose a wrecked John Deere store to announce his promise on May 9 "to get whatever help is appropriate here, whatever help is in the law."