Sept. 19, 2005 issue - It's a standing joke among the president's top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed.
The president did not growl this time. He had already decided to return to Washington and hold a meeting of his top advisers on the following day, Wednesday. This would give them a day to get back from their vacations and their staffs to work up some ideas about what to do in the aftermath of the storm. President Bush knew the storm and its consequences had been bad; but he didn't quite realize how bad.
The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.
How this could be—how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.
The idea that he didn't know what was going on because he hadn't watched the news is an absolutely damning indictment of the man who claimed only he was capable of keeping us safe. The idea that Dan Bartlett had to make a DVD of news broadcasts before the President could get what was going on makes me physically ill.
Why hadn't he been attempting to get ahold of the people on the ground? Why hadn't the President contacted Chertoff and asked for an assessment of the situation on the ground, and to ascertain if all available resources were being used?
Read the entire piece, and ask yourself who was asleep on the job. Was it the Governor of Louisiana or the Mayor of New Orleans? Or was it the President who had to watch a DVD of the news before he got it?
Worst President Ever. I would say that the President should resign, but I just don't know how this country could deal with President Cheney.
-The Oklahoma Hippy
The country's already dealing with 'President' Cheney, except he's got a trained chimp he has to work around -- but really they all have to go. I'm afraid there are few people who have the appropriate sense of urgency, so I would stay quite ready for more disasters.
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