Lame Duck Bush Loses Power to Direct Hurricanes

Delegates to the Republican National Convention will have a sharply curtailed schedule of events Monday because, in the waning months of his presidency, George W. Bush has apparently lost the ability to control the intensity and paths of hurricanes.
With Category 4 Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast, President Bush can do little more than monitor the situation and coordinate the response from Washington D.C..
Just three years ago, at the height of his second term, even the president’s critics acknowledged he was responsible for a direct hit by Hurricane Katrina on the poor neighborhoods of New Orleans.
This week he has canceled a planned speech at the convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, so he can supervise the federal government response to the potential disaster from the White House, which is 106 miles closer to New Orleans than St. Paul is.
In the nation’s capital, Mr. Bush will have access to the presidential cell phone, allowing him to direct distribution of relief supplies to specific homes, as well as specify the exact placement of sandbags and industrial pumps in the Ninth Ward