"Look, this entire situation borders on the ridiculous. "
Yes.
"Let's assume that Governor Blanco was for one reason or another unable to act.... "
And THAT is where you diverged from reality.
It was HER responsibility to activate troops in her state and request troops from neighboring states.
NOT the President.
It is NOT up to the President to do Blano's job FOR her.
As it sits, the President already did one end run around Blanco and Nagins to tell people to get out.
And some whined about THAT.
It appears that for some people, the President can never do anything right.
When you're talking about keeping state parks clean, sure. Bush is sort of the parent and the governors and mayors are the kids. Or the general manager and they the sales clerks. Whatever analogy you want to use. Because Bush would have to deal with this once they had verifiably screwed it up, it is an option before Bush to keep the screwed up part to a minimum from the get-go by either suggesting or ordering them to let him handle it.
Why would Bush assume she could do this job? She's an idiot.