I believe that were Clinton still president, he would be in N.O. now.

[Cyrano]

Having watched this man for eight years, he would be hugging and comforting everyone he could.

Then again, if Bill Clinton was still president, our troops and their equipment would be in New Orleans and all along the Gulf coast at this very moment, not in some insane war in Iraq where we never had any business being in the first place.

Junior, I don't believe there's a hell, but in the event there is, there's probably a front row seat with your name on it. And oh yeah. Leave the golf clubs behind. You won't need them.

[Gman]

1. The Big Dog would have been there yesterday morning at the latest

The man is the most compassionate president we have ever had. This has got to hit home with him very hard.

[Silverhair]

2. And he would be in the way.

Not defending W, but it is really better for ANY POTUS to stay away for a while. The POTUS has to travel with a lot of security and communications staff, and all of that would be in the way of the rescue efforts.

[expatriot]

5. No no no no no no. Doing some fly-overs in Marine One would not get in

the way.

[Igel]

7. The OP didn't say 'fly-overs'.

And Clinton would, no doubt, insist on being in a boat to greet people and comfort them.

And Secret Service would have to be there. And reporters. And local politicians. And local security folk.

Do we need 50-100 people flying in, taking up the time and resources in N.O. to provide for security and transportation of that many unnecessary people?

The only counter-argument is that it would make those on the ground feel better. But aren't there all kinds of claims that those on the ground aren't getting news? ... so they wouldn't know. Apart from the handful actually present.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. Get in the way of what?

What is being done now that a POTUS visit would impede?

[phantom power]

3. If Clinton were president, their levees might have been maintained.

And it's possible that N.O. might not be under water. Furthermore, we might have our National Guard here at home, instead of in Iraq. Oh yeah, and the rest of the military, too.

[Marnieworld]

13. Precisely.

NO would be dry because Clinton made it a priority to keep it that way. A city is destroyed because of an illegal war and Tax cuts.

[expatriot]

4. He would have been in NO YESTERDAY and he'd be the only one there....

he and his entourage of course because he'd have everyone out of there by the time the storm stuck land. All the experts in the area pretty much came into agreement that this one was going to be "the big one" 12 hours before it struck NO/MS/AL coast. It does not take very much creativity to think of how the President of the United States could have directed a massive emergency mandatory, forced (yes, forced) evacuation procedure and have it complete within 12 hours.

I am talking commandeering every bus within a 200 mile area, getting every Marine and soldier within the lower 48 there ASAP, getting all the governors to call up there ANG's to get C-130's down there. Having freight trains prepared to haul people out of the city by the tens of thousands, banning private vehicles not filled to capacity from evacuation routes, etc. Having tens of thousands of armed troops, police, gaurdsmen doing house to house searches for people, pulling them out by force if they refuse to leave.

I was saying they needed to do this Sunday afternoon and I am just a schmuck, was there no one in higher levels that was ranting about it?

[natrat]

9. screw that he had a speech to give in sunny rancho cookamongus

[Autonomy]

6. Bill would have done more than comfort everyone

the guy would fix the situation.

How could we end up with a moran like Bush after having a supremely competent Bill Clinton?

[onenote]

10. no president would have been there

As others have posted, a presidential visit would involve security and other issues, including press, that would not be logistically sound at this point. And this isn't just speculation on my part. One of the most destructive hurricanes during Clinton's presidency was Hurricane Floyd in Sept 1999. It struck North Carolina on September 5, and while it was nowhere as deadly as Katrina has turned out to be, it did kill over 50 people (making one of the 20 deadliest hurricanes in the twentieth century in the US). Clinton did tour the area by helicopter and even visited one of the affected towns, but not until 5 days after the hurricane hit. And in 1996, when Hurricane Fran clobbered North Carolina, it was over a week before Clinton did a helicopter tour of the area (although he did tour areas of MD and VA that were hit before that).

The point isn't to criticize Pres. Clinton or defend Chimpy. Its just to be realistic about how these things are handled. Presidents don't go to disaster areas while the situation is unstable. Chimpy can't be faulted for not being in N.O. over the weekend or even for not being there already. He can be faulted for policies that will make the damage resulting from this hurricane worse than it had to be (and for policies that will make the recovery harder than it had to be).

onenote

[theboss]

11. He wouldn't be there and he shouldn't be there

The president is not an EMT.

He and his insanely large security detail and press detail would be in the way.

To be honest, I'm still not sure what the president's day to day role in any of this should be.

[spinbaby]

12. You're right, the president shouldn't be there

Right now, anyone who isn't actually rescuing people, helping people, or evacuating people has no business going to NO.

The president's role in a situation like this is to ensure that the government is working quickly to get help to NO and to make lots of reassuring noises. In a situation like this, the president should be in front of a microphone at LEAST once a day explaining what's going on and taking questions from reporters. So far, * has gone to a fundraiser, strummed a guitar, mumbled a few words of condolence from note cards, and flown over the Superdome on the way back from vacation.

[DURHAM D]

14. If Clinton was the Pres he would not be in NO and he would not

have been on vacation for 5 weeks, and he would not be fund-raising on the day he most needed to be in the situation room, and he would not have mistreated the "national" guard and Governors,

but, he would have addressed the nation during primetime on Monday evening or Tuesday evening or both.