I'm no fan of Bush. There's a lot of criticism levelled onto him about a lot of stuff, rightfully so. But there's one thing that I have thought about, and you know, I'm not too sure he didn't do the right thing.
I'm referring, of course, to that incident on 9/11 when he was given the news that the nation was under attack, and he went back to reading the story to the children.
The simple question is, what could he have done? He couldn't have bodily stopped the planes, ordering military planes scrambled wouldn't have done anything, the attack was already underway, and in fact, pretty much completed, even before he got the news.
But there were some children in front of him, right then, who were expecting the President of the United States to finish a story.
I would have done the same thing.
See, on the morning of September 11th, I was working swing shift at a call center in Toledo, Ohio. I was having some hard times and living with my parents for a few months. My mother knocked on my door and said "a plane crashed into the World Trade Center". I said "I'm trying to sleep". And I slept through it. I mean, what was I going to do, wake up and watch TV for hours? I couldn't do anything, nothing at all. So better to control what I could, and at least make sure I had enough sleep to do what I needed to do that afternoon. Life wasn't going to grind to a halt just because some terrorists slammed some planes into some large buildings. Yeah, people died, it was sad, but I didn't, and life went on.
I'm not defending most of his actions. I don't like the guy. I wish he'd never been elected, and he's causing this nation untold damage. But, I don't think the incident I'm referring to was one of the things he should be criticized over.
Goodbye, TU status, I knew thee well.
UPDATE: I've been asked in the comments to delete this diary. I won't. I said what I said and I'm not going to erase history. But I'll say that some people have made some pretty good points below, but the point about him being there putting the children in danger is a compelling one. I retract what is said above.