[Mb-civic] A Dearth of Answers - Dan Froomkin - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

A Dearth of Answers

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, September 1, 2005; 12:30 PM

Diane Sawyer's rare live interview with President Bush this morning on 
ABC's Good Morning America exposed one of the president's greatest 
weaknesses: He doesn't have the answers to some of the most important 
questions.

The White House press corps is sort of used to that by now, but the 
American public -- clamoring for answers in the wake of the horrific 
Gulf Coast disaster -- may be less sympathetic.

Bush smiled disarmingly and delivered plenty of assurances in his 
interview with Sawyer, but much of what he said was not directly 
responsive to what Sawyer asked. Consider:

Sawyer: "Mr. President, this morning, as we speak . . . there are people 
with signs saying 'Help, come get me'. People still in the attic, 
waving. Nurses are phoning in saying the situation in hospitals is 
getting ever more dire and the nurses are getting sick because of no 
clean water. Some of the things they asked our correspondents to ask you 
is: They expected -- they say to us -- that the day after this hurricane 
that there would be a massive and visible armada of federal support. 
There would be boats coming in. There would be food. There would be 
water. It would be there within hours. They wondered: What's taking so 
long?"

Bush: "Well, there's a lot of food on its way. A lot of water on the 
way. And there's a lot of boats and choppers headed that way. Boats and 
choppers headed that way. It just takes a while to float 'em! . . . "

Sawyer: "But given the fact that everyone anticipated a hurricane five, 
a possible hurricane five hitting shore, are you satisfied with the pace 
at which this is arriving? And which it was planned to arrive?"

Bush: "Well, I fully understand people wanting things to have happened 
yesterday. I mean, I understand the anxiety of people on the ground. I 
can imagine -- I just can't imagine what it is like to be waving a sign 
saying 'come and get me now'. So there is frustration. But I want people 
to know there is a lot of help coming.

"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."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/01/BL2005090100915.html
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