I’m far from an unqualified supporter of GW Bush but this carping about the FL classroom scene is simply Michael Moore bs and tedious 2nd-guessing.
It is purely a media/Hollywood fantasy that the POTUS could or would make any Commander-in-Chief type of decision in those first 10 min. Bush knew that information was being gathered and whatever immediate actions could or could not be taken were outside of the oversight of the POTUS in the first 10 min.
“PR event” or not, Bush was in front of media and not only children. There was no benefit to the country for him to disappear so fast. Anyway, it was necessarily a “snap” judgment and it is worthless to 2nd-guess him unless there was some clear and compelling reason to act differently.
Only people with some other inherent reason to trash Bush would waste any oxygen still thinking and talking about whether Michael Moore is right after all.
Among the pros on our side, the immediate assessment was that Bush bobbled the ball by not promptly ending his PR session with the kiddies. That Michael Moore and other adversaries used it against him and the GOP confirms that assessment as well-founded.