OHHH, OK. Obviously, if you say it is then it must be so. And let me guess: the "town hall" meetings that GW holds once a month are all legit too, right? Just regular folks from around town I bet. And the fake news reports that came out, and the paid off news anchors, they were legit too.

I get it now, how silly of me.

While I don't want to believe in a staged photo op, I've got to admit that the admin has quite a lot of experience (as listed above) in this sort of thing.

Those town hall meetings are a national disgrace and really gall me.

First, thank you for expanding your answers. I really appreciate a sincire dialog (it's painfully rare here).

Sorry, I did not see a rant about a levee 'photo op.' Not sure who was involved.

My understanding of the Bataan situation was that they were running helicopter rescues but not bringing rescuees to the ship. I find that puzzling. Unless it was fear of bringing a terrorist on board, why would they leave all those doctors and beds idle?

In regard to the president, if you'll recall, the initial 'flyover' last Wednesday was explained as 'an on site visit would be too disruptive.' And there's some truth in that, in that no aircraft can be anywhere near the president for the period of time he's visiting.

Similarly, in the Coast Guard photo op, crew was gathered (see them in the background) and helos were in their hangars. Were they there for maintenance? Refueling? Could those activities proceed while W was there? I think not. You obviously believe otherwise.

Yesterday's firefighter photo op was staged with Atlanta firemen who were flown to the photo op site before being allowed to do actual work -- at another site. That 'rolled up sleeves' shot is just flat embarrassing. Did he bring his chainsaw? Was he going to clear brush?

So my problem with all this is that W did the right thing on Wednesday, and has done the wrong thing by showing up and stopping rescue efforts ever since. How should/could he have done better? By setting up an actual command post at the periphery of the damage and 'photo op-ing' in conversation with some of the people in charge of the 14 government agencies that are tripping all over each other.

Name a president in the last 50 years who did town hall meetings differently?

Every one of them.

Thanks for this description of the Bataan, much appreciated.

So given Mark's original post here, seems like a lot of lies on all sides going around on this subject.

I think we've seen an interesting phenomenon this past week. A press corps completely dependent upon pre-packaged and stage-managed information has had to turn into a group of journalists.

And as such, they've given us bits and pieces of the story, but left out key underpinnings, allowing false accusations to fill the void. It appears Lt. Gen. Honore arrived in NO on Thursday, Sept 1. He seems a pretty capable, hands-on guy, but it took him a couple of days to wrestle everyone into line. DoD reports he began gathering his command together on Friday the 26th.

So I suppose the question is, who was in charge from Sunday the 28th through Wednesday the 31st? We know Gov. Blanco requested FEMA take the lead in coordinating agencies on Saturday the 27th, because the white house acknowledged and agreed with the request. So what happened next?

Tech, on not using the beds/facilities aboard the Bataan; all channel markers were destroyed and bouys were sunk or displaced, it's 90 miles from NO to the Gulf and shipping channels. I'd have to put a guess on it as I couldn't find any location data, but that size ship coudn't have been any closer than 150 mile, probably more. Even at 90 miles (slightly shorter as the crow flies) the air time would have cut seriously into numbers that could be transported and treated.

Coast Guard pic was at ATC (Aviation Training Center) Mobile, those helos were "in the shop" so to speak. And you'll notice the flight suits on some of those guys; these guys have to follow down time and maintanance schedules too. Yes, I do have an "in" at the Coast Guard, and the fellows standing around were mostly off-duty ( some obviously on-duty fixing the helos) and invited to show up in uniform for Bush's arrival-strictly optional.

Firefighters photo-op, I don't know, that's just what politicians do. I wouldn't dissmiss that they were given the option to pose with the Prez and accepted, look how many Coasties showed up after working back to back 12-18 hr days.

Guys, I really don't know what to think with all this information flying around. You can't let yourself believe one report because it's what you want to hear, nor can you dismiss another because it isn't. I try to remember back to what was being broadcast as the storm happened (on generator and local news) and the 1st day that followed as the the info right then seemed more pure in a news sense.

While we didn't get hit so hard here, Mobile and Mobile county got slammed, esp. by the storm surge. The recovery hasn't been flawless here, but it's been very smooth and ahead of schedule in many cases. This is in part because of the lesser impact but also because the authorities and govt. here take these things very seriously and work together as one unit.

When I look at the way things have gone in NO, I wonder if "blame" is the wrong word, but instead accept that fact that people sometimes fall short or fail even when giving all they can. After every hurricane someone always says "you can never be fully prepared". Maybe we've done the best we can do this time. I for one don't know, I guess we'll have to wait for the investigation(s) results.