My Enduring Memory Of 9/11? Bunnypants.

[dbt]

The way bu$h ran like a fucking rabbit all day, isolated on that jet like he was a "target." We had to wait until NINE DAMN PM Central Time to hear from the President of this country (elected or not) to show us the tiniest BIT of concern on the worst day we ever had!

The Secret Service would have had to shoot Bill Clinton in the ass with a tranquilizer dart to keep him from going back to the White House inside of thirty minutes, but bu$h sat in that classroom for half an hour--and then he HID LIKE A SISSY!

:grr:

[ixion]

1. yeah, I remember that as well

he's a very cowardly little man.

[RevStPatrick]

2. You know what? That's something I didn't have a problem with...

...at the time, and still don't have a problem with.
I want the president to be safe when the nation is under attack.
Even if I loathe the little fucker.

Besides, focusing on him hopping around like a bunny conveniently deflects from the notion that Cheney was in the bunker at the time running the operation.

This is precisely how they want to you to react...

[strategery blunder]

8. So, he couldn't have addressed the nation from an air force base?

From Air Force One?

Look, I don't have a problem with the fact that Bush didn't immediately go back to DC and paint a bullseye on his back.

I *did* have a problem with the fact that he was so consumed running around the nation that he couldn't stop for half an hour and address the nation from a secure location.

9/11 was the most traumatic direct attack the nation had experienced in a generation. As much as we look back and mock the fear now, at that moment the nation needed some semblance of LEADERSHIP. Bush made no effort to provide it until about TWELVE HOURS after the crisis struck. Expecting leadership from the President in a time of crisis like that is reasonable, even if expecting it straight from one of the targets of such attack is unreasonable.

It is on this lack of leadership that Bush was judged, and rightly so.

[MissDeeds]

3. Second time he was AWOL n/t

[ThomWV]

4. I remember it well. As the day went on the nation asked "Where in hell is he?"

I asked the question late in the afternoon on a fishing website I used to go to. Later in the evening when he finally showed up in Kansas or somewhere I suggested that he was a pretty cowardly SOB in my eyes. Needless to say I am not welcome on that fishing website to this day.

Still, he was and probably still is one cowardly son of a bitch.

[Warpy]

5. Clinton was in Australia and still beat Stupid back to NYC

to talk with what was left of the first responders and people working to clear the rubble in the hope someone had survived.

That's what sticks with me. That and remembering the silence when I went to the supermarket that afternoon, a silence I hadn't heard since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I hope I never hear it again.

[jimlup]

6. I'm glad someone remembers it like I do

I am still somewhat shocked at the way the American people totally let him off the hook for his cowardice both that day and his inattention ahead of that day.

[MarianJack]

7. Of Course I Can't Prove This, But...

...I will always believe that he was attempting to abandon his office that day.

He was, is and will always be a coward!

PEACE!

[gulliver]

9. It was pathetic.

People just gloss over it. He just sat there after being told. Then he hopped around the country on his plane making everyone feel like some sort of nuclear attack might be about to happen. While the country worried that there might be some sort of wave of attacks, Bush was bunny hopping. There is no question Clinton or Obama would have been on the air reassuring the people and showing courage.

A couple of days later Bush almost teared up in an interview. We never see footage of that any more.

I just think that the American psyche can't withstand the true picture of what Bush was like that day and for a couple of days afterward. He was a true profile in haplessness. For once in his life, Bush's lack of character, not to mention his culpability as the sitting president responsible for US security, were completely apparent. People simply imagined that it wasn't, and it became taboo/rude to even bring it up.

Bush had 90% approval. There was no thought on the part of the public to hold him accountable for the security breach that allowed it to happen. There was no thought given to the fact that he just sat there in that classroom after being told. I remember being in the 10% minority wondering where people's sense had gone.

[Fumesucker]

10. Air Force one has video capabilities and the most sophisticated communications gear on the planet..

Bush could have spoken from AF1, live with no problem.

Edited to clarify what I actually meant.