punkalouver: that is the way the story strikes me as well. It's probably more a question of politics/corruption on the part of the so-called investigators than it is simple incompetence. But we'll never know I suppose.
Graybeard: I assumed you were being facetious. How could any Captain expect to discover incompetence on the part of the F/O, even at the level suggested by the facts here, in the short period of time prior to takeoff? Hardly a reasonable expectation. It is, after all, the job of the company, it's training staff and the regulators who set the rules, to try to ensure that incompetents like this don't darken the doors of a cockpit. I do not expect the Captain to do that except in very rare cases (e.g. gross intoxication).
There does seem to be something to the Buffalo analogy.