High Profile of 9/11/02 Shifts to Low on 9/11/03

[meegbear]

I cannot believe the quote below ...

When it came time to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks last year, President Bush raced to all three sites of horror: the Pentagon, ground zero and the field in Shanksville, Pa., where the jetliner that did not hit Washington left a fearsome scar. The television cameras rarely let him step out of the center of the picture.

The contrast could not be greater with the second anniversary, on Thursday, when the president will not leave Washington in a day of low-key remembrances, starting at the small church across from the White House and ending at a nearby military hospital where, out of sight, he will visit soldiers wounded in Iraq.

And inside the White House and the Bush campaign, discussion has begun on how to handle next year, when the Republican convention is deliberately scheduled for New York a week before the third anniversary. In the heady days of April, when the air was thick with the sounds of military victory in Iraq, convention planners were talking about rolling the political events seamlessly into the solemn remembrance. But the White House now has different ideas.

"I think next year will look a lot like this year," a close Bush aide said today. While the last Sept. 11 was a moment for the president to lead the nation in grief, "from here on out, the president believes this is not a day about him, but a day about those who lost their lives."

<snip>

Well that's nice of him, but I'm sure he'd appreciate all the attention.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/politics/10MEMO.html

[papau]

1. Perhaps low profile because of How ineffective Bush is on Terror

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=10580

[meegbear]

2. Salon has an article on how his popularity tanked in NYC ...

should be a very interesting convention next year.