Posted on 02/04/2002 5:08:46 PM PST by rintense
It's Monday and President Bush kicked off the week with a full schedule as usual. Bush sent his $2.13 trillion budget to Congress, including the 'largest increase in military spending in a generation.' The President took his patriotic message to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where hundreds of enthusiastic soldiers cheered him on as he spoke about the war on terror. And to add to his busy Monday schedule, Bush also met with Russia Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to privately discuss regional security issues. Enjoy your daily dose of Dubya!
Maybe we should all join the military. :o)
And a great-looking group of military folks they all are!!! God bless them and keep them!!!
LOL. Me too! He does look especially nice in that picture!
Just ask my husband.........he had to! :o)
Amen, Gretchen!! Beautifully said, and I couldn't agree more! The light of the Lord is in his face! If you know his Lord, you can see it clearly, whether you agree with every political stance he takes or not. His own faith and prayer, and the prayers of millions of Americans are bouying him up and helping him shine even more brightly!
I haven't posted in a long time. But I check in quite often to see the pics etc. I am very proud of our president.
Our president is wonderful when he sits down with regular people eating regular grub!!
Do you think x42 would have done that? NO WAY!
He has a smile that could bring the sun out on a rainy day - absolutely gorgeous. It's so great to see him with our brave young men and women of the military and see that they love him as much as we do, just as it's great to see him with kids, or his and our First Lady, Laura, or his parents, or Jeb, or Spot and Barney... - Dang - it's wonderful to see him with everyone, or by himself...or any way we can see him.
Please keep up your wonderful work - I hope he knows what a national treasure you are for bringing him to us every day.
Are you active duty AF, or a vet?
Freepers, I've been lurking for some time now, and I knew THIS was the event to take the plunge and post something. I had the unique privilege to attend Mr. Bush's address to the servicemembers at Eglin Air Force Base on Monday, me being one of them. Nothing I've seen on television, to include his inauguration, State of the Union addresses, and War on Terrorism addresses, can compare to being in that hangar Monday morning.
I got there about an hour before he was scheduled to speak, and I was extremely late. The hangar is HUGE, and I was about 3/4 of the distance across the hangar from the stage. The audience was noisy with antici-PA-tion. From what I could see, the audience was entirely military and families, with maybe a few civic leaders thrown in. The first wave of cheering started when Air Force One was spotted on final approach into the base. A beautiful airplane, and not just by its intrinsic value. Then the audience REALLY started humming.
When he was introduced (by Jeb, who else?), it was plaining evident by his posture, by the way he travelled back and forth across the stage, and by the genuine warm smile on the man's face as he waved to his audience and his airmen, he was happy to be there. I can't speak for my fellow airmen, but I believe, judging from the length and volume of the applause and whistling, we displayed our appreciation, our respect, and our commitment to our Commander-in-Chief. That, plus we were happier-than-hell that he stopped by to say "hi". After his arrival on stage, while he was being introduced by Jeb, Dubyah took a seat. He wasn't postured. The man SLOUCHED in his chair! It wasn't a casual slouch, either. It was the kind of comfortable chair-slouching that proper mothers everywhere (including his, if she would've been there) would reprimand their sons for doing by smacking them on the head.
I don't want to go into details of his speech on this post, because I think it should have its own thread. I will share a few bits, though. He mentioned a local airman that had just returned from the front lines in time to be with his (the airman's) wife for the birth of their first children, TWINS! He congratulated the family, then he said something to the effect of "As a father of twins myself, you're gonna be busy," alluding to the stories of his twins that have made the evening news and supermarket rags. There were a few other comments along those same lines.
He then went into his proposed FY 2003 DoD budget, and the resulting military pay raises. Raised the roof with that info. Got into discussing the involvement of the local military community in the war on terrorism. After he finished speaking, he turned to those airmen you see pictured behind him, went down the line and shook everyone's hand (that he could get to). I remember seeing a news clip of ex-President Clinton during his term, in the same scenario (maybe from Bosnia, or somewhere): moving down a line of troops on stadium seats, he was shaking hands, but what struck me was he was HAVING TO REACH INTO FORMATION to get a handshake from anyone past the first row. Dubyah didn't have that problem. He then came down into the floor audience, and pressed flesh all the way out the door. I think he would have been perfectly happy, time permitting, to work his way around the entire hangar (of 7 or 8 thousand people). One of the things that struck me as interesting was the relaxed posture of the Secret Service. I got the impression that they were there, not because they NEEDED to be there, but only because they HAD to be there. Even though there was a crowd around the President, they didn't appear to be worried he might get mobbed or crushed by the crowd. Mutual respect all around.
I can't describe well enough in words the atmosphere in that hangar. Suffice to say, I'm just starting to come down from my high, and the buzz should last for quite a while. It was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. Definitely tops the New Year's Eve party at Trafalgar Square in London in 1989/90.
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