Hindsight is 20/20
| This one is just too easy to let pass. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry ripped into President Bush's reaction to news of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks today at the Unity 2004 conference of minority journalists.
"Had I been reading to children and had my top aide whispered in my ear, 'America is under attack,' I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to -- and I would have attended to it." Now, I'm no Bush supporter, and I do think he reacted atrociously when informed of the attacks, but I think this assault is out of line. I think it's Monday-morning-quarterbacking of the worst kind. I firmly believe that no one can truly know how he or she will react in any given situation until they are faced with that situation. So for Kerry to say he would've gotten out of there right away and taken care of business is ludicrous. Is it not possible that he would've sat there like a deer frozen in the headlights for 7 minutes? |
posted by Matt at 2:01 PM
Comments on "Hindsight is 20/20"
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Buckaroo Banzai said ... (6:35 AM)
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Matt said ... (6:59 AM)
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Buckaroo Banzai said ... (7:13 AM)
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Matt said ... (9:32 AM)
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Buckaroo Banzai said ... (9:44 AM)
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post a commentWow! A pseudo-rip on Kerry. Nice! I agree with you about the Monday Morning QB-ing. I also think that there are a lot more things that Bush opponents can grill him about. The seven minutes is irrelevent. Should Bush have jumped up and sprinted out of the room, thereby traumatizing the kiddies? For what? What could he have done in those seven minutes that would have changed the course of the attacks? Zip.
Two things of note about yesterday:
1. The press attending the conference gave Kerry a standing ovation . . . but the media isn't biased or anything.
2. Kerry goes on the attack after the Swift Boat Veterans commercial airs. Co-inky-dink?
Traumatizing the kiddies? Would you mind explaining how the president excusing himself and leaving the room would have traumatized the kids?
I agree that there probably was nothing to be done, but I think even you can agree that it didn't look good that the country was under attack and our commander-in-chief was sitting in an elementary school classroom.
As for the ad, I have yet to see it. That being said, I'm not surprised that Kerry would attack Bush the same time the Republicans attack him.
1. Some Kerry backers said that Bush should have rushed out of there in a huff, as if he was going to jump in an F-18 and shoot down planes himself. I thought that idea was ridiculous.
2. Of course it didn't look good, but he was probably freaking out, wondering how many more attacks were imminent, and/or simply sitting in disbelief (as most of us were for the first half hour or so). I am not excusing it, but during the first homicide I responded to, the male was still alive, and I froze for a minute, mostly out of sheer panic. He is the president, but he's also human.
1. Utterly ridiculous is right.
2. I agree that Bush is human and reacted as such. This was my point all along; that Kerry can say all he wants how he would've acted, but until he gets into that situation he'll never truly know. Hence, his hindsight -- or, as I like to call it, his Heinz-sight -- being 20/20.
"Heinz-sight." Very punny!