He Don't Know Nuthin' 'Bout Sellin' No Ports

This "whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis?" act is starting to get old. He didn't know the intelligence on Iraq was bad. He didn't know the New Orleans was under water. He didn't know Cheney shot some dude in the face ... Now he didn't know that a deal had been made to sell six of our U.S. port operations to the UAE. Who would have a job if they consistenly f'd up and the only excuse was I didn't know?

What didn't the president know and when didn't he know it?

Faced with a rebellion in his own Republican party over an Arab company's planned takeover of operations at six U.S. ports, the White House says President George W. Bush was in the dark about it until last week.

While Bush adamantly defended the deal again on Thursday, the I-did-not-know strategy has puzzled some political analysts and communications experts.

'It's a disaster for him, I think,' said Michael Hogan, professor of communication, arts and sciences at Pennsylvania State University. 'It's never a good thing for a president to say he doesn't know something.'

Another analyst thought the strategy was an attempt to shift blame away from Bush. It might also give the president some leeway to compromise, perhaps by accepting a slight delay in the deal while Congress is fully briefed.