What other president in history had to deal with a catastrophic unexpected event so soon after being elected?

Question

I'm speaking of Bush and 9/11. Wouldn't any president be in hot water if they were the president when that happened?

Answer 1

Other than Bush making millions, http://wjz.com/business/d**k.cheney.geor...

I don't think Bush handled the tragedy very well at all. Where was homeland Security and why did it take so long to scramble jets to shoot down the airliners that were in NO-Fly zones. Someone should have been held responsible for that!

Answer 2

None that I am aware of. But even an idiot off the street could have done a better job than Bush! No not any president would have been in hot water. I don't think any have been as clueless as Bush.

I am for Obama and still I would put him and McCain as having a better answer to the mess than Bush!

Answer 3

there is no relationship between what evil Bush has done and 9/11

I don't even think McCain would have invaded Iraq! and of course neither would Obama

9/11 was an excuse

Answer 4

Lincoln had a full scale civil war to deal with immediadely upon taking office.

Bush proved he is no Lincoln, our Generals that there is neither a Lee, Grant or Sherman amongst them.  McClellans, McDowells, Hoods and Hallecks the lot of them.

Answer 5

Well, I can think of one that had to deal with something far greater than Bush did after becoming president, and that is Abraham Lincoln dealing with the Civil War.  

There so many questions about 9/11 that this is really an invalid question. I am not so sure this was an "unexpected event." Besides, Bush's handling of 9/11 was a disgrace.    

Answer 6

I'm pretty sure either one of them would've put down the book on the duck and left immediately to deal with the crisis.

Answer 7

The Republicans are very quick to lay the blame at someone else's feet.  The Republicans spent the buck that Truman had on the wall in the oval office.

Answer 8

He won the election on November 7 2000, after being nominated on  August 3, 2000. Your definition of 'so soon' is 10 months - so I presume you will give President Obama a free pass on everything until Sep 2009? That would be nearly one quarter of the way through his first term.

And why was 911 so unexpected when GeorgeTenet of the CIA meet with Condoleeza Rice to tell her 'al-Qaeda was going to attack American interests, possibly in the United States itself' and it 'was a major foreign policy problem that needed to be addressed immediately.' on June 30 2001?

Answer 9

Read the CIA breifing....I would think that Obama would have enough sense to know a legitimate threat when he sees one. Hindsight is 20/20, so we'll never know...but we DO know that there WAS a legitimate threat in the CIA breifing "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US". http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/1...