Posted on 06/23/2004 9:26:24 AM PDT by veronica
SARASOTA, Fla. -- Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" criticizes President Bush for listening to Sarasota second-graders read a story for nearly seven minutes after learning the nation was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
But Gwendolyn Tose'-Rigell, the principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, says Bush handled himself properly.
"I don't think anyone could have handled it better," Tose'-Rigell told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in a story published Wednesday. "What would it have served if he had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?"
"Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the top honor at last month's Cannes Film Festival, portrays the White House as asleep at the wheel before the Sept. 11 attacks. Moore accuses Bush of fanning fears of future terrorism to win public support for the Iraq war.
Bush told the federal 9/11 Commission, which released its report last week, that he remained in the classroom because he felt it was "important to project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening." Moore says Bush failed to take charge.
Tose'-Rigell, who was at Bush's side, did not hear what White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered when he squeezed past her to tell the president of the attacks, but "I knew it was something serious."
"The president bit his lip and clenched his jaw," she said. "I didn't know what happened, whether it was something with his wife or children or something with the nation. I remember praying that God would watch over our school and protect our children."
She said the video doesn't convey all that was going on in the classroom, but Bush's presence had a calming effect and "helped us get through a very difficult day."
Tose'-Rigell said she plans to publish her account of the morning of Sept. 11 from pages she wrote in her journal following the attack. The principal said she didn't vote for Bush. "But that day I would have voted for him."
Will that principal be voting for him in this election?
Thanks for posting this. Michael Moore is scum.
Pandemonium no doubt.
Hope she keeps her word.
It's like Hitchens said in that article a few days ago: (paraphrasing) What would they have rather Bush do? Leap from his seat and strike a Russel Crow pose?
Bush is the leader of the free world, receiving some of the worst news imaginable in the midst of a bunch of little kids. I'm quite sure during those seven minutes of "sitting there," the man was pretty lost in thought about the "who what when where whys" and what's to come.
For all we know, he might have been praying (heaven forbid...pun intended)
Or he could have done what Moore would have done, had he been in Bush's place: pee his pants, suck his thumb and wait for orders from Allah...
More facts sure to be ignored by the MSM.
[SARCASM]
This woman is obviously a right-wing, knee-jerk, Bushbot Republican! (After all, what respectable Democrat would admit to praying in a school!)
[/SARCASM]
I think I'll drop her a line.
...pee his pants, suck his thumb and wait for orders from Allah...
Great! But you forgot the poopy in the pants!
What you mean Moore didn't interview people that were there?
Shocked! Shocked I tell you!
Another NEA flunky. Any educated person with any spec of faith would only vote for Bush. She voted her wallet knowing that Gore would've kiss the NEA butt and throw more money into the education bureaucracy than Bush.
Disgusting.
She stood up for the president, which is more than a lot of people have done.
Why do you insist on trashing her?
Interesting.
Hey has anybody noticed how the true libs ALWAYS print hyphenated last names for ALL married women. They simply inquire as to ones maiden name even if she doesn't use it anymore. Then they print what they like; the hyphenated last name.
Agenda?
He could have composed a diatribe about how the terrorists should have hit a state that voted for Bush, posted it on his website, and then dropped it down the memory hole when even his supporters thought he went too far. Oops, I'm thinking of what Michael Moore actually did right after hearing about 9/11!
You mean, like the other George--Costanza--when there was a fire in the apartment at the children's birthday party?
"Why do you insist on trashing her?"
It is actions that count, not words.
Wonder how Moore would react if he learned terrorists had blown up the plant that makes Hostess Fruit Pies ...
It's not up to you to judge anybody.
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