Posted on 08/09/2008 8:27:07 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
Beijing - A smiling, flag-waving and cheering United States President George W Bush was on hand to cheer on Michael Phelps and the rest of the US team at the first finals of the Olympic swimming competition on Sunday.
Phelps said after his 400m medley win in world record time that the first thing he saw as he put his head out of the water was the president waving a flag.
'That was a very emotional moment,' the seven-time Olympic champion said.
Bush was expected to watch the basketball match between the US and China, but also paid the Olympic competition a morning visit in Beijing's impressive Water Cube.
Surrounded by a group of bodyguards, the US president sat amongst a host of other dignitaries. He soon took his jacket off and opened the top buttons of his shirt to feel more at ease in the hot arena.
Bush was then given an American flag, which he soon started waving as Phelps set a world record in the irst final of the morning.
When the American anthem abruptly ended during the flag raising ceremony for the 400m medley Bush was the first to start waving his flag and became involved in his own personal 'flag-waving-contest' with American fans sitting in the stands opposite him.
(Excerpt) Read more at monstersandcritics.com ...
ping
Bless you Mr. President .
God bless the Bushes.
The Chinese cut short the beginning and the end of our National Anthem while Michael Phelps getting his Gold metal.
US gets Silver thanks to Dara!!! (Go USA!, Go Gators!)
Will Phelps beat Spitz’s record?
God bless President Bush, his wonderful family and our great athletes!
President Bush is so cool! I already miss him.
This President is probably the physically fittest to ever hold office and the biggest sports fan as well.
It must pain the clymers to show W and his beautiful family for a mere seconds. I have to say though that if it were Clinton or Opukam the camera would be glued to their butts to no end!! I still despise the mediapresstitutes with a passion!
It was weird - I thought they played part of it twice so I wonder if that’s related to it cutting off at the end. Better fix it, Beijing. You’ll be playing it a lot, I presume.
I am sure that having President Bush there cheering them on helped inspire our athletes to even greater effort. It’s too bad he can’t be present at all the events cheering on America’s great Olympic Team.
Love that picture!
Phelps is arguably one of the greatest athletes to ever dominate his sport. He’s right up there in the Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods category.
To start the day, he went to church then held an impromptu press conference on religious freedom...that has to irk the Chinese.
I am beginning to understand the plan....since the worlds largest press contingent is there, and they not mostly not biased/domestic, he is going to headline...whether it is fingerpointing at Putin during the Opening Ceremonies, talking about religious freedoms, or what have you.
And the athletes quotes are pretty glowing.... (and the softball player that pranked him, he got a kick out of that too)
Compare that to the dumbass vacationing in Hawaii who has to be reminded how to hold a flag.
Great to see the guy enjoy a few perks of the office finally. What the hell. He’s earned it!
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