Political leanings of network anchors

[warch]

Maybe the very very best reaction would be to quietly excuse himself to attend to the business of the country. But it was not up to him what the next immediate move was anyway, and the very big-picture seriousness was only wholly understood to us for months afterward.

He's the freakin commander in chief! His primary job is the security of the country. It takes precedent over a photo op. To go and do his job would not have caused panic. We were watching planes topple building and people throwing themselves out of windows, for godsake. He's told the country is under attack and his reaction speaks volumes towards his leadership or lack thereof. I disagree that the seriousness wasnt understood till months later. At 9:45 that morning we, who were watching it live, knew some serious shit was going down. We imagined more might be on the way. I was praying those who could know, would do their jobs. I assumed the President got right on it. The emergency response was tremendous, but the air guard response was not quite on guard. We learn after the 911 commission report that Bush didnt move to seek out more information for himself in those first crucial minutes- (7 sitting, 20 figuring out to scramble to Nebraska). Cheney was/is in charge.

Is it stupid to look back at Bush's performance? No. Its a rarity to get a candid, non scripted view. Why didnt we hear more about this pause in leadership AT THE TIME? I heard nothing of it in the news. Probably because the last thing we, as a country under attack wanted to project was any WEAKNESS. It wasnt until the 911 commission's interview of Bush/Cheney and Moore's film that Bush's inaction was presented. Once again, hes the commander in chief and he displayed WEAKNESS.

Bush's popularity soared afterwards, as did America's. We were wronged! We were rallied around. Bush consoled us, he rode the wave. The fact that Bush squandered that goodwill also displays not his leadership strenghth, but his weakness.

And self-indulgent, too, to look at only that period and not the period that followed, in which the resolve of the people fell and those popularity numbers slowly dribbled down to where they are now.

So the trouble today is we the people just lost our "resolve". Bullshit. What we got was more information. What we got was some truth about the leadership's bad decisions. What we got was a civil war in Iraq. What happened is that Bush proved to be a poor leader. I think it is self-indulgent to blame Bush's loss of popularity on a public that just isnt resolved enough. Bush is going to have to start owning some of this fuckups. And they start in a classroom on Sept 11, 2001. I think its evidence worth knowing about.