Reply #1: Today on O'Franken, Al and Mike Moore had another take on that.

[trotsky]

Consider what was known that day. Bush & co. had been over the PDB from August knowing that Al-Q was planning a major attack. We knew Al-Q wanted to use airplanes. We knew they would want to target America's financial, military, and governmental symbols. Surely it wasn't too much of a stretch to think that Bush himself may be targeted? So why would Bush endanger the lives of hundreds of schoolchildren by remaining at that school, not just for the 7 minutes of book reading but for a full THIRTY minutes after the attacks?

So instead of panicking the kids, he endangered them. Oh yeah, that's MUCH better.