Maybe that’s a matter of the beholder’s personal opinion. I’ve never gotten any particular sense of emotional sincerity and conviction from Bush. I do from Condi Rice (even though I don’t agree with her politics). I did from Blair in his speech immediately after the London bombing, and I’m not a particular fan of his either. However, hearing Churchill’s radio broadcast still sends shivers down my spine.
I was home sick on Sept 11 watching the events unfold and the thing that scared me the most (And I’m not even an American) was that a huge terrorist attack occured and the entire governement of the United States, save for the Mayor of New York, disapeared for almost a day.
A true sign of leadership in time of crisis is when the leader himself can show courage by example. Churchill and the Royals remained in London during the Blitz and would walk out in the open to rally the people. It is not enough to talk tough. A Great leader has to show that they too are willing to take the risks that their people are. Anything else begins to sound like hollow platitudes after a while.
It was shamefull to watch a government scurry away when they should have stood tall. Yes they (supposedly) would have risked their lives, but that is the point.
Guilliani (sp?)did what a true leader should, he went to the scene and let’s his presense be known even though there was nothing he could actually do for the situation.
Oh, definitely Bush. Churchill learned from his mistakes.
Bush acted all presidential and shit. As mentioned above, Gore would have done the same things, and been viewed in the same regard.
Come, come now, that is no comparison.
Johnny Turk he was ready, he’d primed himself well. Iraq was a walk-over.
I missed the post where someone mentioned the motorcade burning too much gas. Can you link to it? Or are you just making shit up in order to defend President Cuckoobanananuts?
I remember noting on 9/11 that Bush was pretty quick to declare that we were then at war, and fearing that he was going to use that declaration to start some cuckoobanananuts invasion of a completely uninvolved nation. Glad to see I was wrong. :rolleyes:
I didn’t pick up on this until at least 9/12. I must be slow or numb, I thought my cousin was at work in the tower that day. But I did assume it would be either Iraq or Syria.
Much as I hate Dubya and hope for nothing but the worst for him, this is just stupid. A President who ignores his Secret Service bodyguards is an idiot.
Everyone has their specialty. A President should let his SS guys perform theirs.
-Joe, hoping for Pretzel Part Two
I realize it is not the conventional wisdom on this board to defend his actions, and it’s clear, I think, how much I am opposed to many of GWB’s most recent policies. But in my opinion, his actions were close to the precise right way to handle a crisis like 9/11.
First, remember that he was at a Florida elementary school when the news struck. I am relatively confident that it would not have made a good command center for America’s response. By finishing his visit calmly, then leaving to deal with things, he set an example – “Don’t panic, but act resolutely.” Whatever he might have done is subject to criticism (“he overreacted”; “he acted like that crisis was unimportant”; “he was jingoistic”) but I think that set the tone for his own actions and what he called the country to: take the time to identify what happened and at whose hands, then make sure it doesn’t happen again.
He never said anything with the memorability of, say, “Ask not what Al Qaeda can do to you, rather, ask what you can do to Al Qaeda.” But at that critical time, at least, I approved --and approve-- of his judgment.
Remember that you do not know what most Presidents were doing in the hours immediately after crises in the past; thanks to our expectations of immediate news, we know what Mr. Bush was. (While flying around on Air Force One is not, precisely, setting a good example, it seems a reasonable compromise between his obligation (Secret Service requirement) to keep himself safe and maintaining leadership (Air Force One does have the capacity to function as an airborne Executive Office, to a great extent).
What happened thereafter to the direction this country took is subject to intense debate (See any thread containing Bush, Rumsfeld, Iraq, Patriot Act, etc., in the title). And I cannot defend the President’s actions and policies … in fact, tend to get a little snotty to those who do. But from a relatively unbiased perspective, what he did do on Sept 11-15, 2001, is fairly close to what in my opinion would be the perfect response.
The President should have been addressing the public, not in hiding.
Secret Service will (and should) always error heavily on the side of caution.
The President needs to weigh the perceived threat to his safety vs. the need to do his job.
It is his decision in the end. This applies to every public appearance and every campaign stomp. It applies to where he vacations and where his kids go to school.
If I understand my history correctly Camp David is the preferred vacation spot for security reasons by the SS. Every President from Reagan on ignored this SS safety advise. (Proabably others before also)
But if just calling my statement stupid is easier for you, have fun.
Much as I can’t stand President Cuckoobanananuts, and think that nearly every decision he made before and after 9/11 is astonishingly stupid, I can’t blame him for Air Force One or his Pet Goat.
It’s easy to sit in judgement with the benefit of hindsight, but try to remember that day. He didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know what was going on. And you didn’t know what was going on, either. The full extent of what was happening to us didn’t fully become apparent until much later that afternoon. We were a nation perplexed. If we’d guessed that that elementary school was going to be another target, no one would question us on that guess. On that day, anything seemed horrifically possible.
On that day, I left work by 11am to give blood; I drove home and called family members to find out where my cousin was. Thankfully we finally found out she was home recovering from pneumonia. I called to ensure my Aunt made it back home ok. I watch the rest unfold as most people did. Throughout the day, I cursed Clinton for eliminating the ready fighters that may have had a shot at shooting down the 2nd jet and Bush Jr. for not reestablishing them. (With 20/20 hindsight the Reagan era Ready fighters probably could not have helped).
I could not believe throughout the day that Bush was hiding instead of doing his job. Worst case, get him to NORAD and get him on the Air. But I thought he could transmit from AF1.
My Respect for Giuliani shot up to hero worship levels and my respect for Bush has never fully recovered.
I also could not believe the Pentagon did not have Land to Air defense missiles.
Sorry for the ramble, but my reaction to Bush’s decision to run and hide was not Monday morning quarterbacking, it was flow of thoughts on that day. I even had an argument over this very issue with my brother that night. He figured the President had nothing to do anyway and I thought he needed to be on air and be presidential.
Over the next few weeks, he did step up act presidential. That was very good. The Firemen and Iron Workers at Ground Zero really appreciated his speech to them. When he went down into the sight with them, he was BTW ignoring Secret service cautions.
As I remember it (probably wrongly), he was on the air by noon or shortly thereafter. Anybody remember a more exact time?
It is incorrect to say that there is nothing Bush could have done if he had gotten up instead of reading The Pet Goat. I will agree that it is not particularly likely that he would have hit on the right thing that he could have said, but we will never know, because he sat there like a deer in the headlights.
Approximately 20 minutes elapsed between the time he was told of the second plane striking the tower (and remember, he was already aware that there was something going on even before he entered the building) and the terrorists taking control of the final plane.
If he had gotten up and issued an order that all other crews in the air should prepare themselves, it is possible that some lives on United 93 could have been saved. Apparently the FAA felt that it was up to the individual airlines to give warnings to their crews. If the commander in chief had issued his own warning, the FAA might have gotten off their asses and done what they should have done in the first place.
I was laying on a Blood Bank couch with CNN on and blood pumping out of my arm. I did not see the Pres that early in the day. I recall late afternoon or early evening. Didn’t Cheney actually appear before Bush?
I recall someone official explaining the precautions they were taking with President & VP and others.
I am going strictly by memory and I know I could be wrong.
In this thread, Esprix put it at 1:07.
This wikipedia timeline puts it at just after 1 pm eastern.
Should have refreshed the thread - tdn already nailed it.
Ok, that was the very brief address. Nothing but a few lines, the hop again. The “long” address was in the Evening
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=1600766&postcount=19
Strangely enough, your post. LOL. It sounds like you were even a little surprised by the length.
Yes, but he was on the air long before his official address. A good 7 hours before. And you couldn’t really blame him for wanting to make his official address at any time other than 8pm. People are normally home by that time.
He took 4 hours to make his initial announcement. That’s not an unreasonable amount of time, considering that no one knew what the hell was going on. It’s a little disturbing that his first words about it were ones of vengeance, but let’s face it, we were all thinking the same thing at the time. I was ready to nuke all of Afghanistan, myself.
So, are we really going to hash out the old “why didn’t the President shoot first and ask questions later” debate?
And, since it needs to be said, “I’m Cuckoo for Banana Nuts!”