The City of Ember has just experienced the worst blackout in living memory. The entire power system was out for a full seven minutes, leaving everyone in the dark, both literally and metaphorically. In such a situation, the good folk of Ember naturally look towards Mayor Cole to provide them with leadership, to tell them what he plans to do to solve such a serious problem. After all, that's his job.

But the mayor's not the kind of man for a crisis. As well as being greedy and self-centered, Cole is also spectacularly incompetent at his job. He's the last man you'd rely on in a situation like this. Nevertheless, Cole still goes through the motions and at least tries to act like a mayor. He calls a public meeting the day after the blackout, during which he plans to address both the citizens of Ember and their concerns.

Unfortunately, his speech turns out to be total fiasco. It's full of empty rhetoric and glib platitudes about how he's trying to find solutions to the energy problem. But the biggest energy problem of all is with Mayor Cole himself. He simply doesn't have enough of it to do what needs to be done. And people are angry at him because they simply don't trust him; they think he's lying to them.

In any case, Cole's speech could be the Gettysburg Address and people would still be angry, as hardly anyone can hear a word he's saying. All the people at the back of the crowd can hear is some garbled noise emanating from the mayor's megaphone. Other people in the crowd have to repeat the mayor's less-than-inspiring words to those who didn't hear them the first time.