Posted on 05/03/2011 6:13:40 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
U.S. President George W. Bush listens as White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card informs him of a second plane hitting the World Trade Center, while Bush was conducting a reading seminar at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida.
There has rarely been starker juxtaposition of evil and innocence than the moment President George W. Bush received the news about 9/11 while reading The Pet Goat with second-graders in Sarasota, Florida.
Seven-year-olds can't understand what Islamic terrorism is all about. But they know when an adult's face is telling them something is very wrong — and none of the students sitting in Sandra Kay Daniels' class at Emma E. Booker Elementary School that morning can forget the sudden, devastated change in Bush's expression when White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered the terrible news of the Al Qaeda attack. Lazaro Dubrocq's heart started racing because he assumed they were all in big trouble — with no less than the Commander-in-Chief — but he wasn't quite sure why. "In a heartbeat he leaned back and he looked flabbergasted, shocked, horrified," recalls Dubrocq, now 17. "I was baffled. I mean, did we read something wrong? Was he mad or disappointed in us?"
All sorts of similar kid fears started running through Mariah Williams' head. "I don't remember the story we were reading — was it about pigs?" says Williams, 16. "But I'll always remember watching his face turn red. He got really serious all of a sudden. But I was clueless. I was just seven. I'm just glad he didn't get up and leave because then I would have been more scared and confused." Chantal Guerrero, 16, agrees: she's grateful that Bush regained his composure and stayed with the students until The Pet Goat was finished.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
“I’m just glad he didn’t get up and leave because then I would have been more scared and confused.”
THAT is why he sat there....
What a great article. I can hardly believe that Time would publish this. It goes against the whole liberal propaganda line against Bush, and frankly it undermines the new Obama propaganda line that he is trying to play right now.
Can you imagine how Obama would have reacted in Bush’s place? He probably would have said to his aides, “Hey, guys, tell me about it later! I’m late for my morning round of golf!”
You are cruel!
Has this been confirmed that it is actually in Time.........
9.5 years too late.
I wanted to slap that little brat that morning.
It was 8:55 AM.
Unless he has a 9 AM tee time, at that early hour little Barry is still stumbling around in his Malcomb X jammies and wiping the eye boogers from hims sweepy widdle eyes.
It would have taken Obama 16 hours to get up and leave.
“There has rarely been starker juxtaposition of evil and innocence”
Wow, I never thought of it that way. Great article. Time? Really?
President Bush handled those terrible moments with amazing courage and intelligence. After the way both the Left and many on the Right turned on him only scant years after 9/11, it’s no wonder he doesn’t want to have a public role anymore. American politics has really become a sewer.
The Left is currently burbling on about Obama’s courage for giving the go order to get OBL. Like that was such a hard decision. They don’t know what real courage is.
“The Left is currently burbling on about Obama’s courage for giving the go order to get OBL. Like that was such a hard decision”
The irony here is:
That WAS a hard decision for obama...
43 is going to be viewed relatively favorable in history textbooks 50 years from now although the jury is still out on Iraq.
Well, history treats Truman pretty well and Korea was a nightmare.
The fact of the matter was that he was the president and the country was attacked. He needed to leave immediately in order to protect him. Presumably, nothing was yet known about the extent o the atack, or whether he was a target. You don't lose the Commander in Chief for the sake of some frightened children. If they did a bomb strike against him, the kids would have been taken out with him anyway - so the best thing for them would have been for him to leave pronto.
Yes, it should have been done calmly so as to not have unnecessarily frightened the children. And no, you don't expect him to figure out all of the potential situational liabilities on a moment's notice, out of context - that's the Secret Service's job. They should have swarmed him, insisted he take his leave from the kids calmly but immediately, and gotten him the hell out of there.
IMHO
Bookmarked. Thanks for posting.
I really like this article. I have always wondered what the children in the classroom who were there that day thought. Bush did the right thing by not running out of the room. He did not want to frighten the children. The children who were in the room have confirmed this.
Please...he did the right thing. Jumping up and leaving with his hair on fire would have accomplished nothing but scaring the kids to death. Pres Bush had an incedibly capable administration...10-15 minutes did not make a difference as the damage was already done. Unlike the dims who would have immediately milked the situation for political purposes. If the enemy had known where Bush was, don’t you think they would have taken that area out first? It worked out.
44 - 43 = 0
“..at that early hour little Barry is still stumbling around in his Malcomb X jammies and wiping the eye boogers from hims sweepy widdle eyes.”
You just gave me a great product idea. The jammies, not the boogers!
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