Akman, congratulations on your superb article, Who Dat Dere?  It helped raise my consciousness to a higher plane of thinking.  The Iraq and the Katrina Recovery debacle are with us still, however, we may  consider these as extensions of the Bush Administration's reactions to two singular events that will forever define this Presidency, short of a nuclear war.  In both cases, the Administration was tested.  In both cases, it failed.  BUSHlieliemopaul

The first defining moment was September 11, 2001. 

For those with short memories, the President was reading My Pet Goat to a class of second-graders when Andrew Card whispered to him, "America is under attack." The President told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis.

But after he left the classroom, he didn't call the Pentagon for an update. He didn't even ask if there were other aircraft hijacked or missing. Instead, he and his staff worked on a press release which he delivered several minutes later:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for America. I, unfortunately, will be going back to Washington after my remarks. Secretary Rod Paige and the Lt. Governor will take the podium and discuss education. I do want to thank the folks here at Booker Elementary School for their hospitality.

"Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. I have spoken to the Vice President, to the Governor of New York, to the Director of the FBI, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families, and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act.

"Terrorism against our nation will not stand.

"And now if you would join me in a moment of silence. May God bless the victims, their families, and America. Thank you very much."

Yesterday, the AP released a leaked August 28 video that covers the second defining moment.  It shows President Bush sitting passively as he is briefed on the killer storm heading directly for the Gulf Coast. Senior officials voice dire predictions including the distinct possibility of severe flooding in New Orleans. Bush asks no questions and, when he spoke, it was to offer what turned out be unfounded assurances:

"I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared to not only help you during the storm, but we will move in whatever assets and resources we have at our disposal after the storm to help you deal with the loss of property, and we pray for no loss of life, of course."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content//video/2006/03/01/VI2006030101864.html

Later the fraudulence of Bush's words was caught on national TV in the now-familiar, but still searing, images of thousands of New Orleans residents stranded for days on rooftops or in hellish disaster shelters.  And what about those who died waiting for help that never came.

A few days after Katrina hit, Bush said, in an interview with Diane Sawyer, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will."

A couple of weeks later, during a visit to New Orleans, Bush told reporters he'd been misunderstood. "What I was referring to is this. When that storm came by, a lot of people said we dodged a bullet. When that storm came through at first, people said, whew. There was a sense of relaxation, and that's what I was referring to. And I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet. You know why? Because I was listening to people, probably over the airways, say, the bullet has been dodged. And that was what I was referring to.

"Of course, there were plans in case the levee had been breached. There was a sense of relaxation in the moment, a critical moment. And thank you for giving me a chance to clarify that."

For the people of the Gulf Coast, if not the entire nation, that quote has since become the symbol of the Bush Administration's incompetency!

Apparently as a rebuttal of the video, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said this yesterday: "I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing. He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times."

Okay, Trent!  Where in the hell is the evidence of Bush's engagement?  Where is the evidence of Bush's leadership? 

The government's response to Hurricane Katrina was (and continues to be) a massive failure. The new video points to the President's lack of engagement and lack of leadership as major contributions to that failure.  He - and he alone - had the power to cut through all the bureaucratic red tape to launch a lifesaving federal effort!

Instead, he saw his job as expressing unjustified confidence and making empty promises, rather than taking action to make sure his people were safe.

That's two for two!  And Bush says, "It's hard work - real hard work!"

You're right, Akman, Bush is not a President of the People!  Never has been...