It's downright surprising how often our President finds himself surprised:
"No one could have guessed that Al Qaeda had cells here in the U.S."
"No one could have guessed that they'd fly planes into buildings."
"No one could have guessed that the WMD's were all gone."
"No one could have guessed that we wouldn't be welcomed as liberators."
"No one could have guessed that the war would cost so much."
"No one could have guessed that the deficits would grow so fast."
And now, the latest:
"No one could have guessed that the levees could be breached."
Actually, in all these cases, some could have, and did, guess. In fact, they not only guessed, they predicted, they warned, they pleaded for people, for this President, to listen. And they have names: Colleen Rowley, Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson, Eric Shinseki, Paul O'Neill. Whose name will we add to the honor roll for their unheard concerns over New Orleans? Eric Tolbert? James Lee Witt?
What secrets did these wise people possess that our President apparently does not? It seems that they all took a similar path:
First, they took their responsibility seriously, whether for guarding the country, preparing for war, maintaining fiscal discipline, or anticipating the worst-case scenario. They took their charges so seriously that they asked uncomfortable questions or refused to just let things go.
Second, they assessed the facts, alarming as they were, without assumptions based on the limits of history, ideology, or convention. They did not bury the uncomfortable truth, nor did they fix it around the preferred policy.
Third, they brought their findings to the attention of their superiors, or when necessary, to the public. They were not cowed by indifference or hostility to their message.
Fourth, they proposed meaningful action to address the situation -- arrest Moussaui, alert the FAA, forgo the tax cuts, drop the WMD fictions, finish the levees. They did not care that their proposals were politically inconvenient or required hard decisions; the reality of the situation told them that this was important, that solving these problems was part of their duty.
Fifth, they were willing to take the heat and forfeit careers and reputations to deliver their advice, so that someone, someone who could do something, knew what the dangers were.
This President is once again ambushed by events not because he's unlucky or because his opponents portray him unfairly. He's repeatedly unprepared because he lacks any of the five qualities that those who did guess, did warn, did offer solutions possessed.
He does not take his responsibility as President seriously enough to consider the possibility that he could be wrong. He does not deal with all the facts as they are, preferring to paper over the unruly truths and commission more agreeable ones. He does not level with the American people about the sacrifices required or the possible consequences of inaction. He does not offer real solutions or plans, preferring platitudes, half-measures, or another round of research. And he definitely wouldn't risk his paper-thin electoral margins to tell us anything we might not want to hear.
Irresponsibility, secrecy, deceit, indifference, cowardice suffuse this presidency. It is a cocktail that ensures that current and future emergencies will remain ill-met, leaving us all, again, Bushwhacked.