Bush Appealed for Mandatory Evacuation of New Orleans

One story we haven't seen broadcast repeatedly in the blogosphere is that President Bush personally called Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and urged her to order an emergency evacuation of New Orleans last Saturday. [H/T: Power Line.]

There are any number of reasons this hasn't gotten the drumbeat it deserves -- not least because right-leaning blogs have in large part refrained from even countering the ridiculous assertions by those on the left that Bush somehow "caused" the hurricane or is deliberately withholding assistance -- but it's time to make this known loud and clear.

It's easy to assess the magnitude of failure, and almost impossible to evaluate quantitatively the effects of undesirable outcomes you've averted. But there's no doubt this order saved countless thousands of lives.