The Petulant President

Who pulled the short straw & had to deliver the bad news? See How Bush Blew It

An article in today's Guardian, The petulant president, by Sidney Blumenthal, also touches on the persona problem.

"The deepest wound is not that he was incapable of defending the country but that he has shown he lacked the will to do so. In Bush's own evangelical language, he revealed his heart. The press disclosed a petulant, vacillating president . . . Time magazine described a "rigid and top-down" White House where aides are petrified to deliver bad news to a "yelling" president. Newsweek reported that, two days after the hurricane, top aides, who "cringe" before Bush, met to decide which of them would be assigned the miserable task of telling him he would have to cut short his vacation."

Note that the emphasis is on cutting short his vacation, not the devastation of New Orleans. Says it all.