White House spokesman Scott McClellen told reporters that the President was pleased with how the situation developed yesterday and that all systems worked as planned. Really? The Vice President and his motorcade screeched out of the White House compound and the President was still pedaling away. The United States Congress was in the middle of a vote when Capital Police rushed in and started screaming at the top of their lungs: "Get out now! This is not a drill! Leave!" The President? Still pumpin' those pedals. The First Lady (for those keeping score at home, this is the Bicycler-in-Chief's wife) was rushed to a secure location. But no one told President and hubby George W. Bush. I hate to break it to White House officials, but their fearless leader knew less about the security crisis gripping the nation's capital than millions of Americans. If the President isn't troubled by these developments, then I am. As Mr. Bush likes to remind us, we are in a war on terror where seconds count. The first frenzied moments of September 11th were filled with fear, confusion, and very bad intelligence. If the situation yesterday was so dire that the White House was put on its first red alert since 9/11, the Commander in Chief should have been let in on that little secret. It would be like keeping Churchill in the dark during Nazi attacks over London. Imagine one of the Prime Minister's men saying to security detail, "Winston is painting at Chartwell right now. Probably best if the P.M. is not disturbed." It would not happen then. It should not happen now. If the President of the United States cannot have his bike ride interrupted to learn of a possible terror attack on Washington, then he is not fit to lead this country in its war on terror. This opinion brought to you by Joe Scarborough (former Republican House of Representatives, now host of only right leaning show on MSNBC.)
So what was he supposed to do? Screech to a halt in the middle of the street and start screaming about how the sky is falling? This is like the way the left bashed him for his behavior on 9/11. They feel like because he waited a whopping 7 minutes to act (like he really could have accomplished anything in that short span of time when nobody knew what was happening, anyway) instead of losing his cool and panicking in front of those 7 year olds, he was somehow remiss in his duties as C-in-C. Is that the kind of leader you want? Somebody who panics and runs around like a headless chicken at the first sign of trouble? People in this country got used to 8 years of Bill Clinton...a man who was outwardly calm, cool and collected, a guy you might even like to sit around and drink a beer with...but a man whose idea of leadership was to wet his finger and stick it in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. Anytime he was faced w/ a tough decision to make, instead of taking decisive action, Mr. Clinton would commission a poll. That was his idea of leadership. I thank God 9/11 didn't happen on Clinton's watch...talk about a rudderless ship. I have my beefs w/ President Bush, don't get me wrong. I have problems w/ his handling of illegal immigration, and all the needless spending and increasing size of government (I was opposed to formation of a Cabinet-level Dept. of Homeland Security...there are better ways domestic security could be handled with the means already in place). But the man does have an idea of leadership principles...i.e., that a leader makes a decision and sticks by it, right or wrong. And that the right thing to do isn't always the popular thing, and the popular thing to do isn't always the right thing to do. The left in this country is really getting ridiculous with all this nitpicking. Criticize him over something substantial or just shut the hell up, because it's getting really old.
Agreed Gman, I would give you props but I can't, some of the people on the other side are just rediculous. They will do anything to attack Bush for any reason, they are still mad because in their eyes Bush stole the election in 2000 when in reality Gore lost because of Clinton especially in Florida where the Cubans voted against him IMHO.
Old history. The 49% of the people in the country who didn't vote for Bush in 2004 are upset with his unsatisfactory performance during his first term and the depressing prospects of four more years of it.
There is a lot to be said about a man who is wise enough to come to terms with his own mistakes and makes every attempt to attone for them. Being too stubborn to admit that you're wrong doesn't make you right. But I'll agree that people will get onto Bush for anything he does. But this is America. We can do that. No one is forcing anyone else to be subjected to it. The election is over and those that don't like him can nitpick about whatever they please without the accusation of it being a 'scummy campaign tactic'. Besides, he's just too doggone easy to make fun of.
I agree Bush is easy to make fun of. I'm a HUGE Bush fan, even though i disagree on immigration and increasing government, but I make fun of him all the time. It's not that fact that I think he is stupid, he obviously isn't as he got an effin MBA from Harvard Business school and even if he only got in because of legacy or whatever that doesn't diminish the fact that he got an MBA from Harvard, he just isn't a very good speaker. It's like I make fun of anybody for saying something stupid, I don't care who it is. CC, I love the quote in the sig, Jefferson is my favorite president and one of the top 3 greatest Americans.
Ahem. That was Saddam's leadership principle and look where it got him. A truly effective leadership principle is to make the right decision and stick by it . . . and if it later turns out to be the wrong decision, then you reconsider and make the right decision. Any leader who sticks by a wrong decision is a poor leader indeed. An even worse leader is one that is incapable of recognizing a wrong decision. The goal is to end up at the right place, not to promote the appearance of perfect leadership. Sticking by every decision, right or wrong, will inevitably put us on a wrong decision loop with no hope of getting back to the goal.
It usually takes the perspective of time to judge whether decisions are right or wrong. We live in a very impatient society that wants gratification NOW. I believe that it's still too early to judge this man's decisions. We need to be patient and see how things play out. If he believes that what he is doing is the right thing, then he needs to stick by it in spite of all the criticisms (many of which are politically motivated anyway), otherwise, he loses his effectiveness as a leader.
