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Rather than keeping quiet in response to the overwhelmingly positive marks given by Americans to President Bush's speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the Democrats continue to amaze by once again saying the wrong things at the wrong times. Whether it's Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle blasting Bush at the beginning of the war with Iraq or countless Democrat congressmen echoing the media's assessment that the U.S. military was bogged down after a week and a half of action, the Democrat protests have been met with scorn, and yet they keep going. One has to wonder if the...

All those Democrats attacking President Bush for landing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln seem to have forgotten that one of their own, President Lyndon Johnson, beat Bush to the punch by more than 35 years. LBJ not only landed on a carrier deck, but even sent the ship to sea just so he could make a widely publicized carrier deck landing. According to Rear Adm. Stephen Pietropaoli, the Navy's chief spokesman, LBJ ordered the USS Constellation to leave port in San Diego and head out to sea so he could take a helicopter ride to the ship...

This list includes ship visits by presidents, during their terms as president, presently known to the Ships History Branch. There have undoubtedly been others; any additional information would be appreciated. Commissioned presidential yachts are included though these were not, strictly speaking, "visits to Navy ships" since these yachts were not part of the operating forces. The yacht Sequoia is listed under F.D. Roosevelt only, the only period during which she was in commission. Small craft, such as the motor boats used by a number of presidents after World War II, are not included. Individual ship histories are included in the...

<p>President Bush's triumphant "Top Gun" landing on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln had political photo op written all over it from the start.</p> <p>But the sniping over whether it was an outrageous waste of money is silly.</p>

Heretofore, since at least FDR, most of our American Presidents have been typically staid, except for the notable exception of John F. Kennedy when he appeared formally and repeatedly sans hat. Henceforth the exposed male head was an overnight fad. With a bad back and Addison’s Disease, Kennedy nevertheless exuded physical vitality to us----he was young, fit, trim and daring (he would sail a boat bare-handed in the open ocean for a magazine photo-op)---furthermore, he exposed his bare head in all settings, even the most formal. Long-established haberdasheries collapsed shortly after Kennedy’s inauguration because of the ensuing world-wide trend of...

<p>Sometimes the best political strategy is simply to stand still and allow yourself to be attacked by the wrong guy.</p> <p>We are witness to such a phenomenon as George Bush--cheered, regaled and not-bad in his Top Gun duds--finds his form-fitting aviator pants leg in the clenched teeth of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., playing the Taco Bell Chihuahua to Bush's Rin Tin Tin.</p>

DANGER ZONE Dubya's looking sharp when he made the tailhook landing "Let's investigate"...Nostrilitis starts his demanding Flying toward two thousand four...RATS know what will be in store They have been outflanked...they don't know where next to be turning They are as desperate as can be...you can see them do a slow burning Flying toward two thousand...and the poor RATS know what will be in store We had eight years of Clinton crimes...George Bush has proven he's the right man for these times To everyone it's evident...we have a really decent man as president Terry Mac is mad...he has been...

I've seen some great photos of GWB in his flight suit (pant, pant, drool...) in various threads, but I was wondering if the more resourceful freepers could post them here, and/or links, to have them all in one place. I'd like to bookmark one thread with a lot of pictures, as opposed to several threads with a few pictures.

As for the president's "Top Gun" moment, some people, particularly Democrats, are as worked up as the Dixie Chick critics over Bush's flagrant use of taxpayers' money for a giant photo-op that may pop up in Bush's re-election campaign ads. The critics, in this case, should give it up. Let Bush have his moment. Every presidential administration creates little shows that they call "photo opportunities." Many a president has changed vacation plans or some other itinerary in order to produce a more dynamic photo for the media. Besides, as anyone who remembers Michael Dukakis' Snoopylike ride in a tank in...

It only took a couple of hours to find the photos that demonstrated whats wrong with Bush's Aircraft Carrier Landing. Was it the uniform and headgear? Bush   Clinton   Clinton is wearing an RC-7B CRAZY HAWK during a visit to Korea Was it manipulation of the troops for political purposes?   Clinton visits troops in Ramstein, Germany. Was it the expense? theater? lack of dignity?   Clinton expresses his gratitude to members of Operation Allied Force at Aviano Air Base in Italy. June 22, 1999 Or did he just show support for the wrong red military?   President Clinton...

DID PRESIDENT BUSH arrive by fighter jet when he could have taken a helicopter -- for $7 less per hour? Democrats are only hurting themselves with churlish and petty complaints. Their real gripe with Mr. Bush is that he looked great; the president pulled off his "Top Gun" act as much as Michael Dukakis flubbed his spin in a tank. And what was the result of their agitating? Even more showings of the same dramatic footage of a triumphant commander-in-chief. Mr. Bush's visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln may have been the real kickoff of his presidential campaign. If the...

Reuters President Bush after landing on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln's deck. THE NYT -- FRANK RICH The Jerry Bruckheimer White House If the Democratic party were a TV show, it would turn up as a rerun on Channel 64. Then again, that is just what happened last weekend. Forty-eight hours after George W. Bush delivered his prime-time address from the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln declaring that the war on terrorism will not end before he is re-elected, the nine candidates seeking to replace him in 2004 appeared in a prime-time debate sponsored by ABC News. But Mr. Bush had bagged the...

But some politicians on the mainland, and on the other side of the political aisle, criticized the president's tail-hook landing as an overpriced photo opportunity. Word about the partisan sniping traveled fast throughout the ship. Many sailors couldn't quite believe it was happening, that the historical presidential visit was becoming cheapened by talk that it was just a well-choreographed display that would win the president votes in the next election. It was the latest example. On ship or on shore, a person's position shapes their perception. Bush didn't need to land on the Lincoln's flight deck, or use it later...

<p>I can't believe the gall of Democrats who question the cost and motives of President Bush's visit to USS Abraham Lincoln ("Suicide Dems," Opinion, John Podhoretz, May 9). This, after eight years of a president who every time you turned around was at a fundraiser. How'd he get to those events? Walk? As they say, the cost of raising the spirits of our fighting men and women - priceless!</p>

I have had it! Can you believe the liberal Democrats are so desperate after the successful war that they had to stoop so low to make something out of President Bush's landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln? They claim to be worried about Bush using footage of this in a campaign commercial, but by bringing this up, they were counting on their liberal buddies in the Mainstream Media to keep replaying the images. It did, over & over again! It's like the relentless attacks over conservative Republicans like Sen. Rick Santorium (over his opposition to gay Marriage) and Bill Bennett....

Sometimes the best political strategy is simply to stand still and allow yourself to be attacked by the wrong guy.snip We are witness to such a phenomenon as George Bush -- cheered, regaled and not-bad in his Top Gun duds -- finds his form-fitting aviator pants leg in the clenched teeth of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., playing the Taco Bell Chihuahua to Bush's Rin Tin Tin.snipAs one-two punches go, the Byrd/Waxman sally was a bad day for nerds everywhere. Performing a whiney duet of the desperate, they managed to evoke images of skinny boys studying the quarterback's swagger for clues...

A jet landing on an aircraft carrier is as glorious as it is dangerous. Or, perhaps, it is glorious because it is dangerous. That's why some people want to make a living doing it, and only a few can. That's why President Bush, who can do just about anything he wants, hitched a ride May 1, arriving on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in about the most dangerous way any human being can go anywhere. He survived the physical danger and so reaped the glory, not only of an exhilarating personal experience, but also of the priceless political...

Considering the expense to the American taxpayer and use of American men and women as 'extras' for this media stunt, President George W. Bush should pledge that his USS Lincoln landing not appear in any 2004 Presidential Campaign Commercials and Videos.Press release recieved at the National Journal May 9

There is vice as well as virtue in the presence in most American homes of several flavors of 24-hour cable news channels. The vice is that we are doing to ourselves electronically and institutionally what Winston Smith observed at the Ministry of Truth in the novel 1984. We are sacrificing both the past and the future to the moving moment – we are throwing facts down the "memory hole." The Democrat-sponsored mini-flap over President Bush's speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln is a case in point. The two main attackers of the President's "photo-op" speech aboard the carrier which was...

From the dawn of their species, White House press secretaries have sought to cast their boss in a positive light. Perhaps not since Ron Zeigler made inoperative statements on behalf of Richard Nixon, however, has a press secretary exhibited such a brazen and cavalier disregard for the facts. Before President Bush rode a Navy jet onto the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, press secretary Ari Fleischer informed the world, inaccurately, that the carrier would be hundreds of miles offshore. That distance over water, Fleischer suggested, would be too long for the president to safely make the hop...

(CBS) President Bush's use last week of the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln for a triumphant speech has come under fire from Democrats, who claim the White House wasted taxpayer dollars and sailors' time on a publicity stunt. Despite initial claims that the ship was too far out to sea for a helicopter landing, forcing the president to use a jet, the Lincoln was actually within helicopter range when Mr. Bush arrived on May 1. The jet flight was much more dramatic than a helicopter arrival would have been, as the president took the control stick for part of the flight...

Jackie Calmes of the Wall Street Journal weaves this seamlessly into her 'Washington Wire.''Top Gun' backfires but on Whom?Democrats demand probes follwing reports that President Georeg W. Bush didn't have to fly a jet aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as the White House said, but was near enough to a helicopter, and that the troops could have come home a day earlier.'If that had been Bill Clinton,' says former [Presidential] spokesman Joe Lockhardt, the subpoeanas would have been flying, and there would be blood on the floor from Republicans fighting over who gets to investigate.'President Bush and his aides dismissed...

Sen. Bob Byrd's outburst Tuesday, criticizing the president's trip to the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, had the same desperate tone as Tom Daschle's speech decrying the failure in diplomacy which, he claimed, had brought us to war. Byrd's remarks were outrageous. Subbing for Ollie North on his radio show on Wednesday, I thought the audience would be interested — maybe Byrd's remarks would make for a good half-hour of programming. Almost three hours later, some calls actually had to be cut off because we ran out of time. I'm sure Byrd never anticipated that his ravings would provoke such a...

Continued criticism by Democrats of President Bush's visit to the supercarrier USS Abraham Lincoln a week ago isn't shared by this state's party members. Of course, six state Democrats flew by helicopter to greet the warship as it headed into Everett on Monday. U.S. Reps. Norm Dicks, Jay Inslee and Rick Larsen, who all represent districts that include Navy installations, said they don't begrudge Bush's landing and national address on the aircraft carrier May 1. They said the nation's focus should be on the economy and today's tax-cut vote, not Bush's visit to the Lincoln. The House trio was accompanied...

Congressional Democrats must truly be aiming for permanent minority status, so tone deaf are they in their criticism of President Bush.<!ENDSUMM!> This time the Democrats are working themselves into a frenzy over the president's address last week from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Anyone who watched the president's jet ``catch the wire'' live on TV or later in reruns couldn't help but feel the excitement and the delight for those 5,000 American men and women thrilled to get a visit from their commander in chief. Now Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has asked the General Accounting...

After listening to the rantings and ravings of the DemocRATS who are both jealous and livid after seeing a beloved commander in chief do a tailhook landing on the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, I wanted to get the real story. After about 5 calls and transfers and return calls, I just spoke with a Navy commander who deals with public relations. He is very high level, but because this issue is so sensitive, I agreed that I would not use his name. When asked whether the visit of the president delayed the arrival of the Lincoln, the answer was a resounding...

GIDDY WITH FAILURE, Democrats are breaking new ground in political strategy. Deep in a hole, they are digging still deeper. They have found a new method of dealing with setbacks: They find out what caused them, and do it again. Having unexpectedly lost four Senate seats in the 2002 midterms because of their obstruction and carping, they decided they hadn't attacked and obstructed enough. With a bare majority in the 107th Congress, they used a technical loophole to keep Bush's judges from reaching the floor of the Senate. In the 108th, with a bare minority, they are using a technical...

<p>A penumbra's gonna get George W. Bush if we don't watch out.</p> <p>A penumbra, as every diligent schoolboy knows, is what grows on the Constitution, like green scum on the bayou. Until now, the experts had thought that only a Supreme Court justice could recognize a penumbra, which is easily confused with an emanation.</p>

Watching George W. Bush land on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to embrace sailors and naval aviators, and then go on to lay out his vision for American foreign policy and of an ever freer world . you couldn't help but wonder: Where did this guy come from?Just a couple of years ago he was the awkward presidential candidate, not quite saying what he meant, a study in rough outline debating the smooth, polished, ever self-aware product who had been groomed for the job since youth.What happened?September 11th happened. And it changed everything, including George W. Bush. The...

I think it was Adlai Stevenson who said that America can choke on a gnat but swallow tigers whole. We've just defeated the rabid tiger of Saddam Hussein and, while celebrating the victory, we're gagging over one of the most insignificant controversies in a long while. I'm referring, of course, to the "scandal" of President Bush landing on an aircraft carrier.Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who over his career has led numerous fights to sluice billions upon billions of dollars out of taxpayers' pockets and into the public trough for various liberal programs, is now demanding an investigation into how much...

<p>I had the most astonishing thought last Thursday. After a long day of hauling the kids to playdates and ballet, I turned on the news. And there was the president, landing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, stepping out of a fighter jet in that amazing uniform, looking--how to put it?--really hot. Also presidential, of course. Not to mention credible as commander in chief. But mostly "hot," as in virile, sexy and powerful.</p>

<p>Sometimes we wonder if Democrats need to get out more, break out of their Washington echo chamber: Consider their latest rap that President Bush's tailhook landing on the deck of the USS Lincoln last week was "flamboyant showmanship."</p> <p>So charged Senate sage Robert Byrd this week in a speech saying he was "deeply troubled" by the President's actions, which he characterized as an "affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq." Meanwhile, Representative Henry Waxman asked the General Accounting Office to spend taxpayer money to make a "full accounting" of the cost of the trip. Even Karl Rove couldn't make this stuff up.</p>

It's driving liberals nuts — the image of President George W. Bush in a flight suit on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. There he was, slapping officers on the back, posing for pictures, joking with sailors and aviators. You can bet your bottom dollar these images will be used during the 2004 campaign — they'll make Bush harder to beat. But those who are complaining loudest, who are fixated on the political use of the images, are apparently deaf to their historical resonance. Historically, Americans tend to elect presidents with military experience, the more heroic the better....

it's driving liberals nuts — the image of President George W. Bush in a flight suit on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. There he was, slapping officers on the back, posing for pictures, joking with sailors and aviators. You can bet your bottom dollar these images will be used during the 2004 campaign — they'll make Bush harder to beat. But those who are complaining loudest, who are fixated on the political use of the images, are apparently deaf to their historical resonance.

At today's White House news briefing, WND asked presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer about comments Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., made yesterday lashing out at President Bush's use of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln for a speech last week. Before WND queried Fleischer, other reporters asked questions about the president's time at sea and Democratic criticism of the event. The spokesman said Bush "is proud to have visited the Abraham Lincoln, to have flown onto it to say thank you in person to those who defend our country. That's the president's focus; that's why he did it. He's proud of...

<p>President Bush yesterday shrugged off Democratic criticism of his dramatic landing on an aircraft carrier last week as it brought home U.S. forces from Operation Iraqi Freedom.</p> <p>"Listen, it was an honor for me to go on the USS Abraham Lincoln," Mr. Bush said at the White House in a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. "I appreciated the chance to thank our troops."</p>

President Bush chose to make a jet landing on an aircraft carrier last week even after he was told he could easily reach the ship by helicopter, the White House said yesterday, changing the explanation it gave for Bush's "Top Gun" style event. Bush's televised landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, for which the president wore a flight suit and a helmet and took underwater survival training in the White House swimming pool, was the dramatic start to a visit to the carrier that included an air show and a televised speech to the nation. In his address, the president...

A PR expert appearing on Fox News Channel said that Democrats are furious over Bush's tailhook landing and speech because it worked! The president was greeted jubilantly by Navy and AirForce crew members and was obviously very comfortable being there!

Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Frequently Asked Questions page. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER 805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060 Presidential Visits to Naval Ships  http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq49-1.htm This list includes ship visits by presidents, during their terms as president, presently known to the Ships History Branch. There have undoubtedly been others; any additional information would be appreciated. Commissioned presidential yachts are included though these were not, strictly speaking, "visits to Navy ships" since these yachts were not part of the operating forces. The yacht Sequoia is listed under F.D....

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) --The White House on Wednesday strongly defended President Bush's national address last week from an aircraft carrier, rejecting Democratic criticism that the president's dramatic arrival on the USS Abraham Lincoln was little more than a campaign event for a president up for re-election in 2004.</p>

WASHINGTON--Questioning the motives of a "desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior," Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd on Tuesday reproached President Bush for flying onto an aircraft carrier last week to declare an end of major fighting in Iraq. "I am loath to think of an aircraft carrier being used as an advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan, and yet that is what I saw," Byrd said on the Senator floor. Byrd, 85, of West Virginia, is the Senate's most senior member and was one of the most outspoken critics of the Iraq war. Dressed in a flight...

<p>Sen. Robert C. Byrd yesterday criticized the "flamboyant showmanship" he said President Bush showed by declaring victory in Iraq from aboard USS Abraham Lincoln last week.</p> <p>"It is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the president to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech," said Mr. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat.</p>

Filed at 5:36 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Questioning the motives of a ``desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior,'' Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd on Tuesday reproached President Bush for flying onto an aircraft carrier last week to declare an end of major fighting in Iraq. ``I am loath to think of an aircraft carrier being used as an advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan, and yet that is what I saw,'' Byrd said on the Senate floor. Byrd, 85, of West Virginia, is the Senate's most senior member and was one of the most outspoken critics...

Filed at 5:36 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Questioning the motives of a ``desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior,'' Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd on Tuesday reproached President Bush for flying onto an aircraft carrier last week to declare an end of major fighting in Iraq. ``I am loath to think of an aircraft carrier being used as an advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan, and yet that is what I saw,'' Byrd said on the Senate floor. Byrd, 85, of West Virginia, is the Senate's most senior member and was one of the most outspoken critics...

Some democrats never cease to amaze me. the President visits the Abraham Lincoln to congratulate its crew and all the armed forces for a job well done in Iraq. How do the democrats respond? The only way they know how - partisan politics. Bird and Waxman said on the floor that the visit was innapropriate and want to launch an investigation as too how much a carrier landing by the president will cost the American taxpayer?!? I would like to know how much their investigation will cost so I can send the bill to their constituants because I dont want...

Last Thursday, when the Navy S-3B Viking aircraft carrying President Bush stuck its landing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, the tone of the next election campaign was set. Despite Bush's PR coup, the landing had its critics. ''The president's going to a carrier to give a speech far out at sea with military surroundings while countless numbers of Americans are frightened stiff about the economy here at home," said presidential wannabe and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Isn't hearing politicians complain about a poor economy like listening to the Menendez brothers whine about being orphans? Criticism aside, Democrats...

Standing on the deck of the supercarrier USS Abraham Lincoln last week, President Bush declared an end to "major combat" in Iraq. After his speech a clearly emotional Bush toured the audience of naval aviators and sailors. Watching him do so, I felt so proud of our president. I used to get this feeling a lot when Ronald Reagan was in office. I have not felt it since--until last night. Ronald Reagan made me feel good about the presidency. He made me realize that we should all be proud of America. Whereas Jimmy Carter made us feel ashamed in so...