Gregory - "If Democrats would have been faced with 9/11 would they have done anything different?"

[Dawgs]

Uh, YES you dumb fuck.

1) There's a good chance that if Gore were Prez there wouldn't have been a 9/11.

2) We sure the fuck wouldn't have started a war with Iraq.

3) We might have gotten Bin Laden and destroyed Al-Qaeda if we didn't go into Iraq.

4) We wouldn't be torturing.

WTF!!!

[Arkana]

1. I can tell you that when we had Osama cornered we'd have followed through.

President Gore would have read that August 6 briefing.

We would NOT be in fucking Iraq.

[Lucky 13]

2. I see your "YES you dumb fuck" and raise you a "we'd have done almost EVERYTHING different."

David Gregory is a fucking moron. I can't stand him.

[Cha]

41. I raise the DUMB FUCK

gregory to inth degree.

[Kablooie]

46. I lower the DUMB FUCK down under the table and out of my view forever.

[firedupdem]

3. There would have been no 9/11 since

we can fucking read! He's such a stupid ass.

[Patsy Stone]

4. Democrats probably would have read the August 6th PDB

and understood what it meant.

[Botany]

6. did I ever tell you that you are my Fav?

So bin Laden wants to strike N.Y.C. & Washington D.C. using
hijacked planes .... but but but it didn't give seat #s and the
exact date.

[Patsy Stone]

7. If only

there had been "actionable intelligence". :mad:

:hi:

[CrispyQ]

10. But, but, but . . .

[billybob537]

5. NO

We would have done EVERYTHING different!
Bush's main focus was always on whats best for rich PUKES first, Country LAST!

[ejbr]

8. 7 minutes...7 fucking minutes

Why would the president of the United States stay seated for 7 minutes when the country is under attack? "He didn't want to scare the children?" THE COUNTRY IS UNDER FUCKING ATTACK! The children SHOULD be scared damn it!

Would the Democrats have done anything different. Gregory, go do some lame ass dance with Rove again. Fuckwad.

[Kajsa]

16. Hypothetical situation here,

- a classmate in the adjacent classroom is choking and needs immediate attention-

teacher sits and continues the lesson for seven minutes
so she/he " doesn't scare the children".

or excuses him/herself and immediately administers the Heimlich Maneuver to
the choking student?

Hmmm--

[ejbr]

19. exactly.

And we let him get away with that lame excuse and "re-elected" him. Pathetic.

[glitch]

20. Over 20 minutes. Don't forget the time he spent glad-handing after the reading was over.nt

[Proud Liberal Dem]

23. I know I was sure scared on 09/11/01

The whole thing felt surreal- as though it were something out of a movie. It sure didn't help knowing (at least later) that the President had been paralyzed for several seconds in his seat and then was ferried around the country all day. I can understand that he might not have wanted to immediately returned to Washington yet but he looked cowardly being ferried around the country all day, especially since it didn't appear that anybody was actually chasing him. It's not how I would've expected a President Gore to handle the situation although it's more than likely he would've taken the August 6 PDB seriously and issued an alert to the airlines if nothing else. Also, following the bombing of the USS Cole, Clinton reportedly had Clarke develop a plan to more aggressively go after Al-Queda- basically doing everything that Bush later did after 9/11. He apparently did not implement it because he didn't want to hand Bush a military conflict (like elder Bush did to Clinton with Somalia) but his foreign policy/national security team tried in vain to get Bush and his (mis-)administration to take the threat of Al-Queda seriously. Fat lot of good THAT did the rest of us. But then for Bush, Rice, et. al to act as though they were helpless or didn't have ANY clue that something catastrophic was going to happen, well............:grr:

I've just started reading (listening to) Ron Suskind's "One Percent Doctrine" and after getting a briefing from CIA about their concerns about an impending Al-Queda attack during his August 2001 "working vacation," Bush reportedly told them, "Well, you've covered your a**", after they were finished with the briefing. :eyes: Filthy criminals.

[ejbr]

37. Filthy indeed n/t

[WinkyDink]

30. This alone, bar any other evidence or "evidence", proves to me that Bush knew. HE KNEW there would

be no attacks on the school HE WAS KNOWN TO BE AT in Florida, e.g.
HE KNEW the U.S. was not "under attack" but for 4 planes in a circumscribed area.
So he simply had to sit and wait for the 4 planes to do what they had to do (Flight 93 departed later than the others, having been delayed), wait for the final report from Andy Card---but he couldn't wait any longer, as now the nation was too aware.
YET HE POSED FOR PHOTOS before leaving the school.
http://www.historycommons.org/essay.jsp?article=essayaninterestingday

[ejbr]

39. We see eye to eye n/t

[dem629]

40. I think those were the least significant minutes of all.

What was there to do in seven minutes? The Nat'l Security apparatus was barely getting information in that short a time. I find it hard to believe that any president could have done anything in those seven minutes to mitigate the disaster that was unfolding.

The most important minutes, in my opinion, are those that were spent drumming up the bullshit that took us to war in Iraq. And of course the minutes spent deciding not to go full-force after bin Laden when we apparently had him cornered.

Just my opinion. If anyone has any idea exactly what any president could have done in those seven minutes after the WTC attack, my mind is open to ideas.

[IndianaGreen]

9. President Gore would not have ignored the briefing entitled 'Bin Laden plans to attack US'

that Bush received back in May of 2001. Bush/Cheney were planning war on Iraq back in early 2001, and had little interest in counter-terrorism.

[Muttocracy]

13. Gore probably would have been working on it right away given Clinton's warnings to W. nt

[SoFlaJet]

29. And why was John Ashcroft only flying private

jets since like July 2001-it's not like they had no idea that something was "coming" and exactly WHERE it was coming from...just one more reason to never watch MTP ever again.

[NoPasaran]

11. I would like to think

I would like to think that a different President would have taken advantage of the extraordinary wave of patriotism and national unity after 9/11 to put an end to America's dependence on imported oil by simultaneously developing alternative energy sources and transportation strategies while calling on the nation to accept sacrifices until the new things came on line.

Bush's failure to do that and instead squandering all that political capital on his pet project of invading Iraq and setting up a creeping gulag regime is his greatest crime.

[avaistheone1]

12. If a Dem had been Prez he would not have ignored all the warnings coming in from

allaround the world before the event, a Dem would not have ignored the CIA's hair raising warning or Richard Clark's warnings either.

[tomp]

14. you are right. 9/11 was an inside job....

...would not have happened under gore.

[Dawgs]

26. I never said it was an inside job.

Wow.

[tomp]

42. i didn't say you said it. i said it was.

which is, in my view, the primary reason for the difference between dems and repubs on the question of 9/11.

sorry if it seemed like i was putting words in your mouth.

[mrdmk]

15. Stupid question n/t

[CitizenPatriot]

17. No, Gregory, you clever dog you

there would be no difference, WHy, you only need a brain to see that there are absolutely no differences in Democratic presidents versus Republican presidents.

Why, sure...jobs...economy....wars...oil prices...deficit....violating constitution....OK, so maybe FEW SMALL MINOR differences...

But, why would you assume from those facts that there would be a different response to intelligence?

Oh, true...Gore can read...well....

And the response- I mean, anyone would have sat there for 8 minutes. Anyone. Most presidents have to protect themselves first by getting in their plane and flying around secretly until the danger is gone. I mean....Courage?

That's not presidential.

Oh, sure, President Obama has some courage...Gore had courage, I guess...with that whole climate change debacle....

still, they're just the same.


Yes, you keep telling yourself that, Gregory. It's not your fault: Mediocre Minds can't determine which facts to put in the equation, let alone the right question to ask.

[awoke_in_2003]

21. David gregory

always reminds me of a Neanderthal

[Gregorian]

18. As if all Democrats are the same? It's not binary.

Kucinich.

Lieberman. (he was a Democrat at the time.)


As a Democrat I still can't discuss my strategy even today. I would have forgiven. And then I would have discovered why it happened. And then I would have changed America. In other words, I would have done national introspection. Something that surprisingly was hinted at in Obama's inaugural speech. Our acts have had consequences.

And just to combat those who I can hear saying "forgive?!", I ask you to contemplate the alternative. You can't bomb the world into peace. Sure we would arrest, if possible. But no more violence. No more alienation.

[Juche]

22. The Clinton admin did try to warn the Bush admin

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2004/03/19/578/49731

So a Gore administration would've taken the warnings more seriously. We had tons and tons of warnings that were ignored. Maybe under Gore it never would've happened, but that is speculation.

[EFerrari]

33. The Clinton administration was aware of bin Laden and had people

working on it. The Bush administration ignored bin Laden dispite being warned. We did do things differently and that's a matter of fact, not speculation. :)

[Juche]

34. I know

It is not speculation to say that Clinton & Gore in the white house would've dealt with terrorism better than Bush as that has been backed up with many reports on what Bush did in office, but it is speculation to say 9/11 wouldn't have happened. It would've been less likely to happen, but you can't say with certainty it wouldn't have happened.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

24. Gregory is off his meds again.... darn the luck. n/t

[noamnety]

25. How did the dems vote on the IWR?

therein lies your answer about what they felt was the best course of action (either for the country or their careers - you be the judge.)

[Dawgs]

27. The IWR would have never happened under a Dem President.

I agree that many Dems are to blame for that vote, but...

[WinkyDink]

28. IF there were a 9/11 (not likely!), I'm pretty sure President Gore wouldn't have stared into space

for those infamous 7 minutes (which, were there justice, would be as universally known and as infamous as Nixon's "Missing 18 minutes").

[high density]

31. Why is the media taking us on a trip back to 9/11?

They are far, far too eager to sign onto the GOP hysteria of, "OMG, closing Gitmo makes us less safe!!!"

[LynneSin]

45. Because Obama is waaaaaaayyy too popular for their liking

nuff said

[JFKfanforever]

32. GrammarCop

The third conditional requires the pluperfect (past perfect)
verb tense in the subordinate "if" clause.

"If Democrats HAD been faced with 9/11,...."

[wiggs]

35. Not only would most democrats in office have done everything differently, most republicans

would have as well. It is this a small group of oil/energy/defense industry neocons who gained control of a weak president to make up a rogue administration that has gone off the deep end. Not all republicans would have invaded Iraq, tortured, spied on americans, prosecuted Seigelman, fired attorneys for not pursuing voter fraud, etc. Republicans on congress ended up getting on board with the republicans in the WH because that's what they do...they stick together and obey.

But I have to say that republicans in general, and certainly democrats, would not have behaved in the way this administration has. It is a difference that should be discussed by dem pundits a lot more.

No...we ran into an historically bad group of folks the last 8 years...very unlucky, and they were so bad that no one believed how bad they were until too late.

[boomerbust]

36. The question

The question that should have been asked is, " Why did Bush call off the dogs at Tora Bora ". That is one thing that still keeps my roll of tin foil handy.

[Joe Chi Minh]

38. Heck, Republicans would have acted on the warnings with the greatest urgency.

[lumberjack_jeff]

43. It's not hypothetical. They were. The difference is there's no crater at LAX.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1995/04/22/1995-04-22_feds_blocked_terror_raid_on_.html

Saturday, April 22th 1995, 2:34AM
Federal authorities thwarted an apparent terror plot to launch a Japanese-style nerve gas attack on Disneyland during Easter weekend, according to a published report.
The plot was uncovered after authorities stopped two Japanese men at Los Angeles International Airport a few days before Easter. The men had written instructions on how to make the highly toxic gas sarin and a video tape, the Baltimore Sun reported today.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/inside/cron.html

Ressam says that on the morning of Dec. 14, he called Meskini and told him he would be in Seattle that evening. That afternoon, he took a ferry from Victoria, B.C., to Port Angeles, Wash., with more than 100 pounds of explosives stashed in the wheelbed of the trunk of his rental car. His accomplice, Dahoumane, did not travel with him.

At Victoria, U.S. immigration pre-clearance agents were mildly suspicious of Ressam. They made him open his trunk, but saw nothing. He presented his fake Canadian passport, and the computer check turned up no previous convictions or warrants in the name of Benni Noris. Ressam drove his rental car, with its concealed bomb, onto the ferry heading for Washington state. Upon his arrival at Port Angeles, a U.S. customs agent became suspicious of his hesitant answers to her questions, and she asked for identification. Agents began searching the car. As they discovered the explosive materials -- which they at first took to be drugs -- in the trunk of the car, Ressam tried to run away. He was caught and arrested.

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/nov/17/news/mn-5170

A 32-year-old Algerian man has been charged with aiding the aborted plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during millennium festivities, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

Samir Ait Mohamed was arrested Thursday night in Vancouver, Canada, at the request of the United States, government lawyers said. A criminal complaint against him, prepared last month, was then unsealed in New York.

Canadian immigration authorities had been holding him since July 28.

Court papers allege that Mohamed agreed to help Algerian militant Ahmed Ressam, who was convicted in Los Angeles in April of conspiring to place an explosives-filled suitcase in a crowded terminal at LAX around New Year’s Day 2000.

In a bid for leniency, Ressam is cooperating with the government. An FBI affidavit shows he provided much of the information about Mohamed.

Ressam, who was trained in terrorist camps run by followers of Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, at Port Angeles, Wash., after explosive materials were found in the trunk of his car at the Canadian border.

[LynneSin]

44. When Gore's Chief of Staff would have interrupted Gore while at a school visit...

Gore would have calmly put down the book, thank them for allowing him to visit and explain that he has to go take care of presidential duties. Then he would have taken Airforce One either to DC or NYC to be there and take charge.

[lame54]

47. Other than preventing 9/11?

[AtomicKitten]

48. Tim Russert's corpse would do a better job than David Gregory.