Yep. That's my question. How could the POTUS know less than the average citizen?

Because the POTUS cares less than the average citizen. Simple enough.

And because he doesn't read or watch TV. He doesn't have to - he's always right, and doesn't need to be bothered by those pesky "facts."

Thanks, Brenda. It's an icon for a reason.(three times may be overkill, but hey) TIM: Why would he take the car, knowing it's the first thing we'd be looking for?

FRANK: Because crime makes you stupid.

TIM: May I quote you on that?

Ha. Wanna see Jack McCoy try to run Shrub in for depraved indifference... but you know someone would sigh and tell him not to make new laws, and his jurisdiction is NY anyway, not NOLA.

But I don't expect the President ought to have to watch TV, to get the news. I mean, I would think he'd tune into CNN once in a while, but really, how much time would I want any President watching TV? Not much. I want them working. And, I want them to have sources that are equal/superior to the network news. Maybe the President should have a group of advisors. We could call them a cabinet. And we could appoint certain top military officials to keep him up to date on things, too. We could call them the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Nah. Sounds like hard work.

t adores Cindy

t from afar

I think they changed the phone number and never gave it to the cabinet or the Joint Chiefs. Only the political advisors have it.

Um... Carl Rove dropped his PDA, the batteries popped out and he lost all his contact #s?

Either that, or the house elf that remembers his numbers ran away.

Now watch this drive...

Seriously, I don't necessarily think W's up to the task anyhow, but since when does any President need to be "Research Boy"? People ought to be reporting to him every 15 minutes when there's a big ass disaster in the making.

And right now? Heads ought to be rolling not only at FEMA and Homeland (although particularly there) but throughout the West Wing. Lots of people ought to be having their asses fired but good, right now. I have no hope of that happening though, because one thing we know this Presidency is great at is pretending failure doesn't exist, and given the mindset I suspect rules this administration, I suspect firing incompetents, who couldn't point him in the direction of a few crucial facts like (it's been three days, and people ain't getting out, and ain't getting no water, and the Mayor and Governor are in too deep to handle it) would feel like an admission of failure. It wouldn't be, but that's beside the point, sadly.

Or, maybe Rove's owl died of mercury poisoning.

I read somewhere that a whole lot of top people in some department that oughta have been on top of this were in Greece for somebody's wedding.

I remember no other details, but there you are.

Hell, I'm just an editor, and I can't go on vacation for two days without having somebody backing me up who knows my job. Top people in government going to Greece shouldn't cause the world to end. Or even a city.