Posted on 01/17/2002 8:43:59 PM PST by Jewels1091
WASHINGTON (AP) - It was ``must-see Thursday'' at the White House as a dozen NBC news cameras shadowed President Bush (news - web sites) through an unusually packed made-for-TV schedule.
He walked his dogs, huddled with CIA (news - web sites) and FBI (news - web sites) briefers, reached out to labor union leaders, pored over education policy with his advisers, lunched with Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), waxed profoundly about the presidency to White House Fellows, talked NATO (news - web sites) expansion with the Lithuanian president, signed a bill into law, gave marching orders to his commission on bioethics, sweated through a midday workout and received an award from the 4-H club.
By day's end, a camera was standing watch at the door as Bush entertained 11 Republican lawmakers over casual cocktails - no pretzels - in the White House residence.
``The president and the vice president have agreed to open up the White House today so that American people can have a very rich understanding of the events that take place at the White House, including many of the scenes that take place behind the scenes,'' said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites).
And so, the executive mansion was essentially turned into a movie set, with massive panels of plastic sheeting erected on the North Lawn so that NBC anchor Tom Brokaw could tape his segments safe from the gaze of passing tourists. On the South Lawn, a remote-controlled camera at the end of a 20-foot jib caught Bush up close as he walked from the Oval Office to his limousine.
The one-hour NBC special, produced by its news division and called ``The Bush White House: Inside the real West Wing,'' will air Wednesday immediately before the network's fictional White House drama, ``The West Wing (news - web sites).'' Extra footage will be used for a separate Discovery (news - web sites) Channel special scheduled to air Jan. 25.
Thursday was no average day for a president who mostly keeps 9-to-5 hours. And White House aides admitted in private that they jammed more into Bush's day than they normally would in order to give NBC cameras an idea of the breadth of what their boss does.
The meeting with Lithuania's Valdas Adamkus, for example, was originally scheduled for the following week but moved up to coincide with NBC's taping, a White House official said.
One of 12 camera crews roaming the grounds since around 4 a.m. EST was allowed inside the exercise room of Bush's private living quarters for his weightlifting routine - after he'd worked up a good sweat.
The president's schedule for Friday showed no public events, except for his 3:15 p.m. departure for a weekend at Camp David.
What a load of crap this idiot wrote in this section. The President arrives at the White House at seven in the morning and leaves at 6pm. That is an 11 hour day. God, I get sick of these liberals.
I don't like this. It's not as bad as Clinton having Monica s**k his c**k while he talked with a Congressman about troop deployments in Kosovo, but the principle is the same. In important matters like war and foreign relations, the President cannot afford to be seen as anything but deadly serious. Are we to think the President of Lithuania was pleased to have his schedule rearranged by the White House to suit its need for publicity?
-ccm
Me like Dubya, Dubya like kindred soul...hehe
They forgot to ask me! I'm a transplanted Northerner in the South. So what do I put on my biscuits? My teeth!! ;-}
Is there a "Bush babes" ping list?? If so, how can one (me!) get placed on it??
Don't you love how they're still trying to paint the President as a lazy guy? Silly, silly, silly! Fortunately, anyone who's paying attention knows how much he's accomplishing every day,
and only leftist fools (like this one) believe he works 9 to 5.
BS!! This is such an outright lie. Bush has always been at the Oval Office by 7 a.m. and he stays later than 5. What a bunch of drivel. I hate the press but I can't wait to see this show.
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