I was trying to find a crisis, when the president really has to make a quick decission at 3 am, and I couldn't find any, thus I have to declare it a stupid idea.

Here is the reasoning:

1. Most crisises develope over a long period of time, not suddenly. Also the solution to their problem is usually not a quick one that can be done just by 1 decission 3 am. (like a friendly president assasinated) The correct decission can wait until 10 am most likely...

2. Really big crisises (like asteroid hitting Earth in 4 hours) probably can not be helped by the president anyway, so let's let him/her sleep.

3. Other serious crisis (like nuclear reactor accident) is already dealt with by the time the president is reached and the safety measures are already taken.

So in short: there is no really a 3 am crisis, because it is either can not be dealt with QUICKLY, or the prez can not do anything anyway or everything is already underway what can be done.

Right? (of course I am right)

Please feel free to tell me how many 3 am crisises happened since WW2....

P.S.: I might have found 1 such occasion, like this:

"Mr. President, our satellites indicate that the Russians have just lunched 500 nuclear warheads in our direction. What shall we do?"

But really, in this case we are already all dead, so it doesn't matter what the prez says....

Thank Goodness that Republicans have taken the issue of quick and decisive action off of the table. Since George W. Bush sat for 20 minutes as Innocent Americans were burned alive.

They said, oh, well, there was nothing he could really do. Oh, um, well, he couldn't of spent 10 seconds to contact his Norad liason to scrample intercept jets. Why? Because the feelings of the children he was reading in front of may get startled. So he was justified for sitting and allowing hundreds to burn so he can preserve the calm atmosphere of the classroom.

So thanks to George Bush, Presidents will never be held accountable for failing to protect the American people. So Barack has nothing to worry about.

Good point. If we let this chimp to sit at the red button for 7 years, really, ANYBODY could be allowed...

The perfect 3am ad would have a picture of bush II staring into the camera after being told of 9/11.

yeah, that ad worked very well in 2004....

Does anyone know where the term "3 AM crisis" originates from?
I googled it but didn't find anything useful.

Well, since there is no such a thing, there is no definition. The slogen comes from the campaign: "who would you want to answer the phone at 3 am, if there is a crisis" or something like that...

I've heard here and there about "3 AM chemicals" - when you wake up in the middle of the night and feel all depressed and weird - it's because of the metabolism that goes on in the body during the night.

I think the only calls Hillary will get at 3am are "booty calls" for Bill. :)

3 am is when I get up to pee, usually...