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The 7 minutes in the classroom -- an executive had done his job
dfu | 8-6-04 | dfu

Posted on 08/06/2004 8:11:21 AM PDT by doug from upland

It is easy for Monday morning quarterbacks or those among us who will do anything to harm the president politically to say now what they would have done had they been the president on 9-11. Tom Brokaw was on the Imus show this morning, and there is a report that he claimed he would have excused himself and told the children, "America is under attack!" Reports have said that John Forbes Kerry joined a few other senators in a room where he sat there for forty minutes and said that they "couldn't think."

Should President Bush have excused himself two minutes earlier? Three minutes earlier? Four minutes earlier? Perhaps. But what he did actually did, for many good executives, made perfect sense.

One of the characteristics and strengths of a good executive is to choose the right people and then to let those people do their jobs.

Had Bill Clinton been sitting there, Clinton indeed would have gone into full panic mode. That would make perfect sense for him because look at the people around him. A former DemocRAT dirty trickster and bar bouncer who still doesn't know who hired him was actually given the job of chief of White House security. A thug from Arkansas named Raymond "Buddy" Young was at FEMA. And Madelleine Albright was at the State Department. Clinton hired so many compromised and flawed individuals that, of course, he couldn't depend on them under pressure. Many of them couldn't pass drug test. That had to modify the drug tests and make them multiple choice.

While the president was contemplating what to do, here are some of the activities that were going on behind the scenes. Secret Service agents at and around the school were assessing whether there was an immediate threat on the life of the president. They were determining whether there was a threat on or around the White House and whether the president was to go directly back to D.C. or be flown on Air Force One to a safe location. Dr. Rice and her staff were assessing the nature of the threat and getting reports from around the country and the world. Fire and police personnel were responding to the scene at the WTC. Hospitals in the area were being prepared for an onslaught of injured patients. The FBI was coordinating communications with and getting reports from field offices in major cities. Through the chain of command, commanding officers of National Guard units were being notified. Foreign leaders were being notified and were being asked whether attacks were occuring on their soil. Avation officials were assesssing the status of other planes in the air. Plans were being made to move all parked vehicles at least 300 feet from all airport terminals. The State Department was putting our embassies on a high state of alert around the world and providing them an assessment.

Had Andrew Card told the president that missiles were headed toward the U.S., the president would have left immediately. In that case, a few minutes could matter a great deal. In this case, while those on whom he counted were doing their jobs, a strong and resolute president showed those children in that classroom and the rest of world that America was not going to panic.