Christopher Joshua Arndt writes…
Politics and opinions regarding Presidential propriety in the 9/11 situation aside, I was amazed that Russ Kick from The Memory Hole actually believes that he knows more about security than the United States Secret Service. If the SS weren't moving the President, one could be damn sure he's secure. I believe my illusion of the Secret Service's skills and abilities is a bit more realistic than Mr Kick's imagination regarding the merest possibility of situations occurring outside the school and in the immediate area thereof.
You're right that the Secret Service generally knows how to protect the president. I was endorsing the video link, not the accompanying commentary. I think the real issues here are (a) once protected, did Bush snap to action properly? And (b) are his handlers and supporters trying to write a new and fictional account of what he did at the time? The point of the video is that it proves that Bush didn't leap to take command of the situation, as some have insisted, and wasn't watching the news when the second plane hit, as he seems to have claimed. The latter discrepancy strikes me as one of those things that if Clinton had said it, Republicans would say that a lie of that magnitude proves moral unfitness to hold public office. But they'll ignore it in their guy, just as Schwarzenegger supporters are going to pretend Arnold didn't say that he'd participated in public group sex.
Actually, I think it's absurd that anyone thinks reading stories to school kids is a good use of any president's time, even when thousands of people aren't dying in a terrorist attack. It's nothing more than a cheesy photo-op. I felt that way when Carter and Clinton did it. I felt that way when Reagan kept bringing the Girl Scout who sold the most cookies to the White House for ceremonies. I'll feel that way when the next president tries to show us he's an okay guy by surrounding himself with singing children instead of working on the deficit and national defense. The guy I'd like to see in the Oval Office is a guy who'll probably never exist; who will get up in his victory speech on election night and say, "I will thank my supporters by devoting myself 24/7 to the important parts of my job — national defense, the economy, the environment…" and maybe one or two others; who'll leave the ceremonial parts of the job to the Vice-President and First Lady, and devote a minimum of time to vacations, fund-raising and frivolity.
I've never expected that person to ever be on my ballot. Then again, I didn't expect to see Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt and Gallagher on there, either. One nice thing about the recall is that it's given me faint optimism: If anyone can run for high public office, maybe someday the politician of my dreams will.