[wideawake]

Was it when he said that he didn't "think anybody expected" the New Orleans levees to give way, though that very possibility had been forecast for years?

It was pretty clear from the context of the speech that no one expected the levees to break after the storm had passed with apparently no damage to them.

[t2buckeye]

Exactly....I can understand why President Bush would NEVEr want to talk to the media. They ALWAYS couch his words in their own context...never in the context as intended. It was obvious when reading his whole statement that he meant that the floods as an AFTERMATH of the storm surprised him. Of course, the questions about why the Mayor and Governor failed to follow their own plan will never be asked.