It was not “Monday morning quarterbacking.” In the circles I was in, the political game was ongoing on 9/11 and Bush’s reactions to it would affect the political environment we and our candidates would have to operate in. My brother’s reaction that night was also that the prolonged session with the kids would come back to haunt Bush and the GOP — as it did.
Which is exactly why Kerry and the dims swept the the elections in '04... oh, wait...
Anything after the heat of the moment, and coming from anyone who was not in the action, is by definition “Monday morning quarterbacking” (even if it may come sooner or later than the day after a game as the NFL “Monday morning QB” reference would suggest).
I agree that such review and assessment is not automatically suspect (as the colloquial phrase is usually intended to suggest), since all (political) actions of significance merit critical review. We all need to evaluate and (let’s hope) try to learn from the past.
One of my points is that staying in that room for 7-8 minutes was perfectly reasonable, even yes ADMIRABLE, under the circumstances.
If unnamed “pros” such as your brother really did have concerns about it I suspect that’s more about the potential for “political” mis-use (as we came to see with Michael Moore et al) rather than with the issue of whether there was something inherently bad, mistaken etc. in its own terms for the POTUS to continue with a public activity for 7-8 minutes after being informed of a crisis.
So the claim seems to be that Pres. Bush should have foreseen and acted upon unspecified “political” fallout in the future if he did not rush out of that room 7 min. sooner?? Even though it would have no bearing whatever upon his or the govt’s actual response to the crisis??
I submit that’s exactly the kind of thinking we should NOT want in a POTUS in a crisis!!
We are discussing what should be one of the fundamental differences between conservatives (principled, results and substance driven, competence-oriented) and current liberals (appearance driven, shallow and superficial, media-influenced and obsessed, etc.).
I would agree that conservatives can’t live in a bubble and totally ignore how the media will play stuff, but do you really want a POTUS whose first thoughts in the first 1, 2, 3 minutes of a national crisis will be “how can I look good for the media?” and “how can I forestall the Michael Moores of the world from attacking me?”
MY take on Pres. Bush in that room is “here is a man who can walk and chew gum at the same time, who doesn’t have a meltdown even in the face of a grave national crisis.”
There was no good substantive reason for him to get up and leave immediately without any more information, so he (briefly) completed what he was doing and then made his exit.
I submit that this is exactly the kind of self-command we should want in a POTUS (I’m critical of GW Bush on quite a variety of policy issues but not on his bearing and behavior on 9/11).
Well the visible pros, the commentators and govenment officials that were there say that you were/ are wrong.
So you are of the school that if some GOP person did not do this or that that the Dims and the mediots would leave them alone or give them good PR and press. Boy are you dreaming.
Had Bush not looked however you imagined he looked since you apparently take all you keys from the Dims and mediots and spent less time with the kids, I am sure you would be on here lamenting that Bush looked panicky that day. This is because the Dims and the mediots would have told you so for years and you brother likely would have mentioned that the very night of 911.
So I guess you want a cave on the debt ceiling because we all know that if the GOP members of Congress cave, they will be much better press from the mediots and the Dims would not trash them to the press either, right. Boy was a dream world you live in.