Elonka wrote:

} It's not just
] a trivial occurrence that is being taken advantage of because
] we happen to have an emotional photo -- 9/11 was the greatest
] challenge that our country faced during the course of Bush's
] presidency. How he dealt with that challenge *is* crucially
] important.

One thing that concerns me is that most people believe the attack on Afghanistan was a reaction to the 9/11 attacks. It was actually well underway with respect to planning and logistics. Pakistan had been told earlier that summer that we were coming in.

The attack on the Taliban was not vengeance for 9/11, it was business as usual. I think that's how most people think Bush "dealt" with the challenge, by avenging America against the purported culprits.

] If people are going to blame Bush for everything that goes
] wrong, then I believe that they should also give him credit
] for some of the things that go *right*. And say what you
] will, we haven't had another 9/11 while on his watch.

You could phrase that another way: We had the 9/11 attack under his watch. We witnessed our standard operating procedures for intercepting errant aircraft fail that day. 67 airplanes had been intercepted that year under standard operating procedures. Why not on 9/11?

Something else interesting:

ABC journalist John Cochran was traveling with the President. He reported on ABC TV on Tuesday morning:

"Peter, as you know, the president's down in Florida talking about education. He got out of his hotel suite this morning, was about to leave, reporters saw the White House chief of staff, Andy Card, whisper into his ear. The reporter said to the president, 'Do you know what's going on in New York?' He said he did, and he said he will have something about it later. His first event is about half an hour at an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida."
--'ABC News' Special Report 'Planes crash into World Trade Center' (8:53 AM ET) Tuesday 11 September 2001

So he knew about it before he went into the school. More evidence that he knew, Cheney on 9/16 meet the press:

"VICE PRES. CHENEY: ...As best we can tell, they [American Flight 77] came initially at the White House and...

"MR. RUSSERT: The plane actually circled the White House?

"VICE PRES. CHENEY: Didn't circle it, but was headed on a track into it. The Secret Service has an arrangement with the F.A.A. They had open lines after the World Trade Center was... "

He stopped talking where the elipses were. It's pretty clear he meant "HIT" though. So the Secret Service (with the President that day) had open lines of communication with the FAA at the time the WTC was being attacked.

So the Secret Service at that point knew what the FAA knew. The FAA "suspected" that flight 11 had been hijacked at 8:20. (Newsday 23 September 2001, 'Air Attack on Pentagon Indicates Weaknesses') And according to the official story, the FAA notified NORAD at 8:40 that it was hijacked.

I find it hard to believe the Secret Service did not know, at 8:46, that we were under attack. And it's a real stretch to believe Bush did not know.

We all saw the photo-op where he's sitting in the school, then he's given the status report (oh, sorry, the "news") gets that shocked look on his face. He turned "briefly somber" according to one reporter. After that, he just sits there for about 10 minutes reading about a fucking goat.

Yeah, he really performed well that day. And he is fighting having to give testimony on 9/11. You would think he would have nothing to hide.

] Don't get me wrong: There are plenty of things that I dislike
] about Bush -- but as far as his passion for national security,
] I agree with him and think he'd still be a good leader. The
] question for me as to who I vote for though, is whether all
] the things that I *disagree* with him on are going to outweigh
] the things that I agree with.

I'm not voting for Bush or Kerry, I can tell you that. Bush is hell bent on controlling the remaining oil of the world. Kerry votes one way then changes his position later, to a fault. He's been getting the name "chameleon" for a good reason. Once again, we're going to be voting for the same thing. Plutocracy, anybody?

RE: Furor over Bush's 9/11 ad