From Newsday.

Some people view the proper role of a President and the government as an all-powerful father substitute. In their ideal view, one should not be able to fix a flat tire without considering the Federal role in the operation. What should the President be doing about this goddam tire, you should think.

They can't seem to conceive of why Bush might be going about his business while the police are handling the sniper problem. He should have been there. He should have been doing something.

What exactly? Unless he runs into a phone booth and changes into Superman, I'm not sure what he could have done.

Okay, maybe he could have deployed the military like Breslin suggests, which seems odd in the light of the left's squeamishness about Ashcroft and government power. But is that what was necessary?

Or maybe he should have been "soothing" us? Cripes, I'm a grownup. Do I need soothing? Maybe he should friggin' burp me. Is that what some people think is necessary?

Well, politically, maybe.

Oh, Clinton would have done it right. Been in front of every camera, gone to every site, and played Great White Father to the utmost. Watch for the quivering lip. Clinton would have milked this for twelve points on the polls.
Clinton firmly believed, and still does, that the entire nation, down to the last falling sparrow, should be his own personal responsibility.

Bush doesn't have the talent for symbolism over substance, and seems to have the archaic idea that there are some areas of the operation of our nation where the President should not have a personal role, and he let the cops do their job. And they did.