Reflections
I'd say that the fact there is debate, 2 days after the event, from the comfort of a PC in someone's living room as to whether the glide ratio of the A320 would have resulted in an arrival at an airport at the limit of the approximate theoretical range - assuming the pilot knew or could see at 9 miles that there were no obstructions to that marginal approch - more than justifies the decision to take the alternative of an approach involving risk to very few others on the ground. An arrival anywhere on the ground in a built up area other than the airport would have been very likely to have resulted in serious disruption to the airframe and fire. This decision had to be made in a few seconds as the options would be diminishing rapidly.
There has been speculation regarding Captain Sullenberger's experience as a fighter pilot and as a glider pilot. Surely, the former is, rather than concentrating on any counter-productive "gung-ho" aspects, someone who was trained to make life and death decisions in high stress situations and the second, rather than purely giving experience of judging final glides (useful, but I'd imagine that very few ATPLs would be unable to do the sums) - someone who has learnt to fly without the reliance on numbers and procedures which are the norm in powered aviation. Certainly, the common theme in "how I did it" speeches at gliding competitions always seems to involve a successful pilot thinking outside the box...
There's no reason to suppose, at this time, that any situation other than that reported to ATC existed - other than for the posters to be able to claim bragging rights that they "knew all along" that someone had made a mistake. I sincerely hope they are made to look very stupid.