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Andrew Card? a WH political employee defending his ignorant, incomptent, criminal boss?
It's not often there is a video record of the exact moment a president realized he ed up so colossally. Deer/headlights was understandable.
Andrew Card? a WH political employee defending his ignorant, incomptent, criminal boss?
I can't really blame Bush for his reactions on this one. Heck, him trying to remain calm to talk to the children might have been his own defense mechanism, in order to keep himself rational.
It's really hard to say what any of us would have done in that situation. I'd like to think that I would've asked the aide if my vice was on it, and to give me five minutes. Then I would have speed-read through the rest of the book, thanked the kids, and high-tailed it out of there.
*sigh* Yeah, boutons. He's quite the political shill.
LOL Trust me, we all lived in the reality of the moment. I saw that second plane go in, I saw those towers fall. I was at work and I fielded phone calls from people looking for their family members we employed all over NYC - including large offices in the WTC. When they called I didn't sit there in silence for 10 minutes.
I don't expect Card to throw his former boss under the bus, but I'm pretty sure almost no one agrees with just sitting there.
Except Darrin.
I don't expect Card to throw his former boss under the bus, but I'm pretty sure almost no one agrees with just sitting there.
Except Darrin.
Oh I have no doubt it was a Bush defense mechanism but I'm sorry if I don't want my president to be a man or woman who has to calm himself down in the event of an attack.I can't really blame Bush for his reactions on this one. Heck, him trying to remain calm to talk to the children might have been his own defense mechanism, in order to keep himself rational.
It's really hard to say what any of us would have done in that situation. I'd like to think that I would've asked the aide if my vice was on it, and to give me five minutes. Then I would have speed-read through the rest of the book, thanked the kids, and high-tailed it out of there.
As long as the kids in the class thought Bush was protecting them, that's all I care about.
Criticism is warranted; I just don't think anyone knows what they'd do in that situation.
When our responsibilities are limited, our response time is quicker. For instance, I was in my dorm room on Randolph AFB sleeping when it happened. (I worked the night shift.) When my friend came in to tell me to get dressed because we got attacked... well, let's say I was pretty sure he was screwing with me. Except he wasn't. So I threw on my uniform, headed to the squadron, and started securing the network.
Now Bush, he finds out about the attack. As a President, he literally had thousands of different options. I can understand why that might cause paralysis analysis, and there's a good chance he was thinking about his response in the back of his head while he finished the story.
Again, I don't know. I personally won't excoriate him for the response.
apparently he didn't tell the kids that he heard it was coming.
LNG, then don't run for president. No one is saying he's a bad person, but it certainly is the mark of a bad president. Since when the do I want people in that office who react badly to pressure?
There's no excuse here. As president you're held to a higher bar. Thats the bottom line.
LNG, then don't run for president. No one is saying he's a bad person, but it certainly is the mark of a bad president. Since when the do I want people in that office who react badly to pressure?
There's no excuse here. As president you're held to a higher bar. Thats the bottom line.
you! LnGrrR for POTUS!
I don't think that immediate reaction is necessarily a positive. Assuming leadership was effective, he should be able to trust his people to hold up the fort for ten minutes. As it was, there was a limited amount he could do at that instant in time; scramble fighters and talk to the various national defense agencies. In my eyes, I don't think ten minutes made any difference there. YMMV.
Now, the "proper" answer is to politely excuse himself, explain that he had an important job to do to the children, then leave. But I'm not going to try to intimate that those ten minutes were the difference between life or death, because I don't think it was.
In hindsight, sure -- but given the uncertainty of the day, just sitting there doesn't seem like the best option.
It's not like if he left immediately the kids would speak out today saying Bushy scurred them.
You're in the military and you don't think 10 minutes makes a difference while under attack in today's environment? Holy LNG, now I"m worried.
Ten minutes makes a ton of difference, sure. But I assume that, if for some reason I'm unavailable, that I've trained my troops well enough to be able to handle crises in my absence.
Of course, if there IS a crisis, I will respond in the best way I know how, ASAP. (Like yesterday, when one of my troops accidentally momentarily took down communications for the PACAF commander....)
My shop should be able to function capably if I'm not around; if not, I haven't done my job training them. My job (at this level) is to focus priorities, identify organizational shortcomings, etc etc. But as you get higher and higher in the ranks, you get further removed from the people actually "doing" stuff, the hands on the ground.
I assume that all the "hands on the ground" people were already responding, and didn't need say-so from the President in those ten minutes.
I don't think Bush reacted badly but I also believe that he could have also excused himself from the class without causing the kids to panic. I think even the kids would understand that as POTUS he can't always stay on schedule. Or he could have directed someone to pull the fire alarm.
Finding out how My Pet Goat turns out isn't really a compelling reason though.
I'm not sure how much I like that you assume that, to be quite honest. I think you shoul.d hope the training takes over should be unable to respond due to forces out of your own control, but I don't think you should ever knowingly not respond because you think someone else is going to.
If eveyone assumes that, LNG, who the responds?
Alexander Haig.
interesting how this falls on deaf ears.
Yeah it's pretty hard to say he did the right thing.
The criticism, while warranted, was pretty over-the-top and was a bit too easy for people like Michael Moore to exploit. I don't think this particular incident makes him a buffoon, or uncaring, or complicit in the attacks. But like Manny already said, you want more from the President of the United States. I want a President who's first reaction is to find out as much as he can as fast as he can.
And I can't imagine there are many Republicans who would have argued beforehand that this is how a President should react when told that the country is under attack. I mean can you imagine if it had been some snooty liberal President reading a children's book to a classroom on 9/11? I don't even want to imagine how many times Darrin would have posted that YouTube.
That's an important distinction. I'm not saying I WOULDN'T/SHOULDN'T respond, but that I trust my troops to do so if I can't for some reason.
This somewhat ties in to my reasoning. You've heard about the curious effect where some people are hurt/injured/etc, and the more bystanders around, the less of a chance that someone will take responsibility or help out, because they assume someone else will take over?
At lower/more focused levels of responsibility, I think it's easier to "take charge" of your section than at higher levels, where the mul ude of options to take can paralyze someone.
I assume that the "lower level" functions (ie. responding directly with fighters, securing the area, etc etc) were being handled by their respective departments. I'm not sure who the President could've directed in those ten minutes. I assume he would've just used the ten minutes to gather intelligence and information.
In the same vein, our squadron has a Chief Master Sergeant, who keeps track of long-term projects, the overall enlisted health of our area, etc etc. But in a comm emergency, I'm not going to wait for CMSgt to tell me what to do to respond, because he's just too many layers above me.
So, combining the paralysis/analysis with my belief that there was a limited number of actions the President could have effectively achieved in those ten minutes is what prevents me from being too concerned about this. I don't begrudge others their opinions.
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