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."
Hahahahaha good one!!
Want to see Moore get really conflicted? What if Terroists blew up a McDonalds?!?! No more Quarter Pounders...but an Evil Corporate Empire would be taken down!!!
His head would probably explode on that one.
Guess it would just be time to switch to BK...
:-p
Hee hee ... he might actually have to start rooting for our side!
Possibly - in your mind. I happen to have a hyphenated last name. I don't use it as a general rule, but it is my legal name.
michael moore is a gigantic POS! If President Bush had rushed out of the classroom,moore would have criticized him for scaring the children. Wake up people,moore is full of poop!
No, it's a British and a Southern tradition.
Does anyone have a copy of his post-9/11 post?
Who knows? Maybe she voted for Buchanan, but all that aside, TODAY she's standing up for President Bush and for that I thank her! She's doing alot more than the rest of the GOP does for him. When's the last time you heard a Congressional Republican say anything in defense of the President?
How did Bill Clinton react after the first WTC bombing? Did anyone have to wait while he finished up having sex with a mistress before being able to tell him? Enquiring minds want to know. Michael Moore type minds most certainly do not want to know.
Probably not but I appreciate her honesty if not her vote.
It's NOT like AF-1 was sitting on the ramp with it's engines turning. It would probably take 30 minutes for it to get ready for take off so his sitting there with the children for a few more minutes made no difference at all.
Not only that, there were things going on behind the scenes to get things and the country moving.
It ticks me off how this happens to me all the time. My maiden name is now my middle name. It is not hyphenated with my last name. Why can't they get that stright?
I know it was posted on the freeper board several times. I'll look for it later when I have some time.
And the actions are that she defended the president, who she didn't vote for, from Michael Moore. But you're too busy nitpicking her for having a hyphenated name to realize that she's standing up for a president who she didn't even vote for!
Since Moore doesn't know what Bush was told at that moment, or what plans might be in place for any contingency, he has no capacity to judge either the proper reaction or what should have been done to 'take charge.' This is hardly surprising, as Moore's intention is not rational criticism, it is ridicule, regardless of facts or logic.
I know. And those Reagan Democrats! I've heard rumor that some of them were once (gasp) Democrats!
Thank God no one on Free Republic was ever, ever a Democrat.
I don't doubt that 7 minutes was the mininum time for the Secret Service to ready the vehicles, notify AF1, clear the route, etc. to get W out of there in a fast orderly manner.
Facing the unknown, better that W stayed put within his security cordon, than running down the halls of the school, out of the building and jumping into an armored Suburban with no place to go.
Oh, right. Lets not give the woman credit for speaking up to defend the President's actions that horrible day. No, lets be sure we do not applaud her honesty, lets condemn her for her past lapses. The last thing we need is a lib with enough decency to not allow lies and misrepresentations to go unanswered. Who does she think she is, Zell Miller ?
If this is the same woman referred to in Bill Sammon's book, she is a democrat.
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