Daily Inspiration Quote by Michael Chertoff

Chertoff is trying to do something bureaucracies love: redefine leadership as logistics, and optics as an afterthought. The line lands with the weary certainty of a man arguing from process, not emotion. "Job one" is an old managerial talisman, a way to rank priorities and declare yourself rational in a crisis. And the specificity of "make sure the buses are there" is doing heavy work. It shrinks catastrophe to a checklist item - not because buses are trivial, but because naming a concrete deliverable offers a shield against the more chaotic question people were asking after Katrina: where were you, and what were you doing?

The subtext is defensive even as it claims prudence. "It seems to me correct then... correct now" is a retroactive stamp of validation, less an explanation than a preemptive rebuttal to criticism. It's a statement built for hearings and Sunday shows: the administrator wasn't absent; he was managing. The phrase "completely appropriate" gives away the anxiety. If it were truly self-evident, it wouldn't need that much permission-giving language.

Context matters because post-disaster "touring" is politically radioactive. A site visit can read as solidarity or as spectacle. Chertoff frames looking at damage as secondary, almost indulgent, implying that visibility is a temptation leaders should resist until the machinery is moving. It works rhetorically because it sounds responsible, even moral: results over symbolism. It falters because in a disaster, symbolism is also operational. Being seen can speed coordination, reassure survivors, and signal urgency to the entire system. The quote reveals a worldview where competence is measured in supplies and transport, while public trust is treated as something you earn later, once the buses arrive.