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Crazy comparison of the day

November 06, 2009 10:35 am ET by Jamison Foser

Linda Chavez compares President Obama's statement about the Ft. Hood shootings to his predecessor's deer-in-the-headlights decision to keep reading a children's book during the 9/11 attacks:

Before he got to the issue on everyone's mind - namely the deaths of Americans in uniform - the president gave a "shout-out" to government bureaucrats gathered for a previously scheduled conference at the Interior Department, complete with appreciative chuckles. He treated the event like a pep rally rather than a tragic occasion with a wider audience than those gathered in the room. I wonder how many media outlets will compare Obama's performance to President Bush's "Pet Goat" moment on 9/11. I won't hold my breath.

I'm always amused when right-wingers take a break from angrily accusing everyone else of "forgetting the horrors of 9/11" and instead grossly understate what happened happened that day in order to try to score cheap political points.  

Anyway: on September 11, 2001, George Bush was told the nation was under attack, and responded by reading a children's book.

Now, one might reasonably argue that the best thing for Bush to do during a crisis was, in fact, to keep himself busy reading My Pet Goat rather than screwing up important decisions.  But in any case, that is not even remotely like anything that happened yesterday.

Tags: Linda Chavez, Commentary Magazine

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    • Author by sbreader (November 06, 2009 10:40 am ET)
      4  
      Now, one might reasonably argue that the best thing for Bush to do during a crisis was, in fact, to keep himself busy reading My Pet Goat rather than screwing up important decisions.

      Oh, that's cruel, Jamison. That is SO cruel. Point very well taken, but cruel.
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    • Author by sbreader (November 06, 2009 10:41 am ET)
         
      Now, one might reasonably argue that the best thing for Bush to do during a crisis was, in fact, to keep himself busy reading My Pet Goat rather than screwing up important decisions.

      Oh, that's cruel, Jamison. That is SO cruel. Point very well taken, but cruel.
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    • Author by The_Cat (November 06, 2009 10:59 am ET)
      8  
      Oh, dang it! Now I'm confused again. Don't the wingnuts keep on telling us to quit bringing up Bush, 'cause he's no longer president? And don't they also say we're supposed to focus on the now, and not bother about prosecuting torture, and corruption, and other traitorous things the previous administration indulged in? And now they're dragging Bush back out, only to prop him up for false comparisons? Make up your minds, why don't you... oh. Right. They don't ever really think, do they? I mean, farther ahead than the next sound bite, anyway? Sorry. My bad. Go on back to being wingnuts, wingnuts.
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      • Author by MeanMrSpicyMustard (November 06, 2009 11:39 am ET)
        7  
        Clearly you're unfamiliar with rule one of right wing talking points--that is, it's not okay to talk about something except when it suddenly is.

        The reverse is also true, naturally.
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    • Author by ursanug (November 06, 2009 11:56 am ET)
      4  
      We must remember that the "shout out" that the president made was to a Medal of Honor winner, not some lame bureaucrat.
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    • Author by raine315 (November 06, 2009 12:07 pm ET)
      4  
      When it comes to Bush and his "My Pet Goat" I never faulted him from not jumping up the SECOND he got the news of what was going on. Bush was never a very tactful person to begin with- so it better for him to sit there a few moments longer with the small children than to go into his cowboy mode and scare them to death by screeching outloud "we are under attact by unknown forces- I have to go now kids". So yeah as a parent i think it was best that The Shrub kept his mouth shut and sat there for a few moments- for the sake of those kids in the room.

      Now as for the Obama bashing regarding Fort Hood- we all know the wingnuts were going to blame/attact/put down President Obama over what happened.
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      • Author by pongotwistleton (November 06, 2009 1:11 pm ET)
          4
        Now as for the Obama bashing regarding Fort Hood- we all know the wingnuts were going to blame/attact/put down President Obama over what happened.

        Good post. But did you also predict that all the leftwing lemmings, amply represented on this site, would attack Bush for sitting there "a few minutes longer . . ." Just as Obama's comments are entirely inconsequential in this case, so was Bush's decision to sit there a few extra minutes. But true to form, and for reasons they can't explain, the sheep all agreed that sitting there a few minutes longer than their shepard michael moore thought proper, somehow had some significance . .. Baaaa. . .
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      • Author by pongotwistleton (November 06, 2009 1:11 pm ET)
          4
        Now as for the Obama bashing regarding Fort Hood- we all know the wingnuts were going to blame/attact/put down President Obama over what happened.

        Good post. But did you also predict that all the leftwing lemmings, amply represented on this site, would attack Bush for sitting there "a few minutes longer . . ." Just as Obama's comments are entirely inconsequential in this case, so was Bush's decision to sit there a few extra minutes. But true to form, and for reasons they can't explain, the sheep all agreed that sitting there a few minutes longer than their shepard michael moore thought proper, somehow had some significance . .. Baaaa. . .
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        • Author by robrob (November 06, 2009 3:03 pm ET)
          2  
          You can compare and find similar the Presidential responses to 3,000 Americans killed in an ongoing national terrorist attack vs. 13 Americans killed at an already secured crime scene?
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          • Author by pongotwistleton (November 06, 2009 3:33 pm ET)
              3
            It's like this, if you were up in arms about Bush's awkward response in the seven minutes that followed his hearing of the terrorist attacks, then you're either a colossal idiot or a morally bankrupt partisan hack. If you're upset about Obama's comments, then you're either a colossal idiot or a morally bankrupt partisan hack.

            What do you think Bush could've done within those 7 minutes to save lives or kill terrorists? Do you not think that people of all walks of life -- be they politicians, generals, cops, or dare I say, our Holy One. . . --reacted awkwardly upon hearing that news? Most very likely were incredulous. . . . His policies that followed of course are fair game for criticism, but to harp on something as petty as the "my pet goat" episode, as so many lemmings did, reveals only their superficiality.
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        • Author by steeve (November 06, 2009 5:42 pm ET)
          4  
          You never saw it. It was an interminable length of time. Moore had to edit it.

          The reason we criticize Bush is because the correct course of action is so blindingly obvious: leave quietly right away.

          Geez, people step out of meetings at work when their friggin' cell phone starts vibrating. It's not that hard.
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    • Author by michaelkconnolly (November 06, 2009 12:11 pm ET)
      2  
      I knew somehow someone would get around to making this about Obama and somehow imply that it is his fault that it happened. I'm sure Limbaugh will tie this to Obama somehow as soon as he can. If he can't find any real links he will just make some up and that'll be good enough for him and his audience.
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    • Author by mattcable250650 (November 06, 2009 12:26 pm ET)
      5  
      I had a discussion about that day and how Bush handled it on someone's blog. We agreed that, no, Bush should not have jumped up, looked wildly around, screamed and run out of the room. He could very easily have calmly gotten up, said "Kids, I've got presidentin' stuff to do" and departed. We agreed that he should have gotten to a place where he could be in touch and could get communications and learn what was going on real-time. The person finally agreed with me that a military headquarters would be ideal for that purpose. Air Force One was available (That's how Bush got down to Florida, AF1 was standing by at a nearby airport), but any decent-sized ship or fort would have done just fine as these facilities are also equipped with state-of-the-art communications and aides would have been surrounding the President, able to interrupt him and to bring especially urgent communications to his attention.
      So yeah, the President could have and should have gotten himself up and out of that room, calmly, but immediately.
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      • Author by robrob (November 06, 2009 2:59 pm ET)
        2  
        Funny how the wingnuts always think Bush's only two options in this situation was to sit still for 7 minutes reading a kids' book or to run wildly out of the classroom screaming like a little girl.
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