Posted on 06/24/2004 9:34:32 PM PDT by anymouse
This is a story of how powerful the new media has become. A phenomenon of sorts has grown from a picture of a 15-year old girl named Ashley Faulkner in a warm embrace with President Bush. It all began in early May. President George W. Bush was on the campaign trail in Ohio and one of his stops for the day was at the Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon, Ohio. In this Cincinnati suburb awaited Ashley Faulkner and her father Lynn. They had arrived early with their friend Linda Prince to get a spot in the front of the line hoping to get to meet the president. As the campaign event wound down they would indeed get to see President George W. Bush up close and personal.
Mr. Bush worked the line, shook Mr. Faulkner’s hand and then proceeded until Linda Prince spoke up. “This girl lost her mother on 9/11,” Prince told the president. With that proclamation the president changed from the leader of the free world to a father and a husband. According to Mr. Faulkner, “The president’s entire expression transformed and he turned and came back against the flow and his eyes locked on Ashley’s.” The president took the time to talk to Mr. Faulkner’s daughter Ashley and give her a warm hug. Mr. Faulkner told me he debated before taking this now famous picture, wondering if he was invading a very private and special moment between his daughter and the most powerful man in the world. He decided to snap the picture you see here, the only one taken of this incredible moment of compassion by President Bush.
(snip)
It is said that character is measured by what you do when no one is looking. President Bush warmed Ashley Faulkner’s heart and took the time to comfort her when he believed no one was looking. But with one fortunate click of a digital camera, now the world gets to look.
Perhaps they were wrong in the nineties--- maybe character does matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtondispatch.com ...
Wonderful post!!!! Thank you so much for it.
Okay, I have tears in my eyes.
I still can't look at that pic without a lump in my throat.
OW!
**Crackle**
There went my heart again.
Pray for W and Our Shining City
"Perhaps they were wrong in the nineties--- maybe character does matter."
They were wrong. Character mattered then, it matters now. Character always matters.
That has to be one of the best campaign photos I've ever seen. I hope the girl and her father are invited to the convention. I saw them on Fox news a couple of weeks ago.
How many of America's newspapers do you suppose will run this photo ahead of more "Abu Grab Prison Atrocities"... if at all?
I bet somewhere there is a picture of Bill Clinton and a 15 year old girl
The protective encirclement of her head by President Bush's arm and hand is the essence of fatherly compassion.
SPOTREP - HUmanity Alert
I almost got a tear - then thought what the Slickmeister would have done in the same situation -
IF he had stopped to embrace the girl, he probably would have snuck a dirty grope.... Isn't it amazing how different (in a VERY good way) GW is from Clinton.
Character DOES make a difference!
Wow, how did you do that? And who are the people in the pictures?
"How many of America's newspapers do you suppose will run this photo ahead of more "Abu Grab Prison Atrocities"... if at all?"
.......................
If they did run it they would probably only sully it.
My resolve to support this President becomes stronger every waking hour. There is a God and a Satan and we see their servants every day.
That gif has just sent chills up and down my spine. It is perfect. It tells the true story, of President Bush, of the 3,000 murdered on 9-11, of the WOT -- of a President knowing fully well how he would be miscast, mistreated, abused, lied about -- still went ahead and did the right thing, in the big picture, and in the small picture.
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