bush and the psychology -- and politics -- of incompetency

A professional opinion, from the right side of the unelected president's couch.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011807J.shtml

 

Re: bush and the psychology -- and politics -- of imcompetency

Oh, Lord will you people give it up about "freezing" in front of the schoolchildren and "vanished from public view" the rest of the day? What would have made you happy: Bush dropping the children's book, calling for the nuclear codes and launching ICBMs in front of the second-graders? And when AF One took off from Sarasota that day, United 93 was still in the air, headed for D.C. Should the Secret Service have allowed the plane to head straight for Washington and get the president to the White House just in time for a 767 to crash into the East Lawn? Secret Service operational policy in a situation like that, when the President is out of Washington, is to not return the President to a dangerous situation.

Christ, the same old broken records.

 

It would have been interesting to see, had this site been around then, how Clinton's transgressions would have played out here.

My guess is there would have been a lot fewer Clinton-bashing threads, and he'd receive copious amounts of defense. Because, simply put, most of the people on this board are liberal and/or Democrats.

So no, it's not quite a pot/kettle situation.

 

They must not realize there is a comprehensive plan to secure the president in just such an emergency. Any president in that situation would have undergone the same procedure -- not returning to Washington, flying to a secure area (usually SAC in Omaha), or remaining airborne indefinitely.

But it's a lot easier for these asshats to just go ahead and ignore all that, so long as it satisfies their idiotic agenda.

 

He was also an effective president with six years' worth of accomplishments to his credit at that point. So, no, it's not quite a pot/kettle situation. Not at all, in fact.

 

Right! Why can't these leftys realize that it was part of the comprehensive plan for the commander to continue to read aloud from 'My Pet Goat' for another full seven minutes?

 

[/sigh]

And if he got up and acted like Captain America, you'd bash him for that, too.

What would you have done in that situation, may I ask?

 

Asshole: You ignore me, I ignore you. Got it?

 

I'd have stopped reading to the children and tried to pretend I had a clue.

 

I love these "If I were president when the country was attacked, I would have simply done ..." responses. I bet most people, even superhuman journalists, would wet their pants on a daily basis if they were charged with being leader of the free world. I'm sure the pressure of the newsroom makes us all experts on how to act bravely, heroicly and without hesitation in a situation no one has ever had to specificly deal with before.

 

There's also something to be said for trying to cause as little disruption as possible in front of a bunch of children.

Of all the Bush-bashing -- some of which is justified -- this is the one that always gets under my craw the most.

 

I've never been told the tangiable benefits of Bush doing something other than what he did at the Florida school. Let's say he throws the book down, tells the kids that he's needed somewhere else and books it for AF1. Does anyone not die? Do any planes get intercepted? Do any buildings that fell NOT fall? Okay, it'd make a better presentation to have him say something Hollywood-worthy in the moment he gets the news, but other than a first-response metaphor, what would America have gotten out of it?

And funny how this wasn't a big deal on Sept. 12, 2001. Or Sept. 13, 2001. Or Sept. 14, 2001. But Kerry made it a point of his campaign, and now two-plus years later we see this brought up as though Bush bit the dick off a retarded puppy.