Kerry on 9/11

Off Topic Politics and World Issues
1

This isn’t to criticize Kerry’s action/inaction on 9/11, but it is to criticize Kerry’s picking up of the asinine Michael Moore critique of Bush for going seven whole minutes without springing to action upon hearing the news:

http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/04_08_01_corner-archive.asp#037423

WHAT KERRY DID [KJL]
Listen, he wasn’t president on Sept. 11, and I am not questioning his reflexes or reactions, but it is worth noting what Kerry did do on Sept. 11, 2001. Here’s what he told Larry King: “…And as I came in [to a meeting in Sen. Daschle’s office], Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon…”

Kudos to Red State for finding that. And for noting: “It should be noted that the second plane hit the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m., and the plane hit the Pentagon at 9:43 a.m. By Kerry’s own words, he and his fellow senators sat there for forty minutes, realizing ‘nobody could think.’”
Posted at 08:11 PM

2

Here’s the Red State post referenced above:

http://www.redstate.org/story/2004/8/5/113357/2243

Kerry knocks Bush for inaction on 9-11

Before a gathering of journalists in Washington, DC today, John Kerry criticized President Bush (CNN.com - Kerry hits Bush reaction to 9/11 attack news - Aug 5, 2004) for his actions on 9-11-01 following the attack on the World Trade Center. Kerry blasted Bush for not acting swiftly, and instead choosing to sit with children in a Florida classroom.

Kerry: “Had I been reading to children and had my top aide whispered in my ear, ‘America is under attack,’ I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to – and I would have attended to it.”

First, it’s telling that Kerry is using Michael Moore’s propaganda as a playbook in his campaign. This has a definite whiff of desperation about it.

Secondly, where exactly was John Kerry that morning when America was under attack, and what was he doing?

In an interview with Larry King on CNN (http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0407/08/lkl.00.html), July 8, 2004, Sen. Kerry was asked where he was the morning of September 11th. Here is part of his response:

Kerry: "...And as I came in [to a meeting in Sen. Daschle's office], Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon..." (emphasis added).

It should be noted that the second plane hit the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m., and the plane hit the Pentagon at 9:43 a.m. By Kerry’s own words, he and his fellow senators sat there for forty minutes, realizing “nobody could think.”

In other words: Sen. Kerry, who criticized President Bush for not rushing out of the Florida classroom for seven minutes, sat paralyzed with his colleagues for a full forty minutes. He is hardly in a position to criticize President Bush for “inaction.”

3

Kerry wasn’t the commander in chief, Bush was.
Bush had all the responsibility on that horrible morning.

4

I can’t believe the whole 7-minute thing is still an issue.

Bush sat in the classroom for 7 freakin minutes. Why? No one knows for sure except for Bush and his secret service guys.

Clinton sat in the whitehouse for 8 goddamn years while we endured attack after attack.

5

Bush choked under pressure, plain and simple. He was told “a second plane has hit the towers. America is under attack”.

Bush just sat there, until somebody told him he should stand up and leave.

Did Bush rush back to Washington DC? No, he flew around in circles for hours.

Later, Team Bush tried to claim that he flew around in circles because there were “threats” against Air ForceOne, that they were trying to evade. This was later exposed as a lie, there were no threats against AirForce One.

Bush choked!!! When the chips were down, George Bush froze like a deer caught in the headlights.

Nobody would care about this stuff if Bush’s record as president didn’t stink!!!

Yesterday the government announced that we only created 30,000 jobs in July. The problem with this number is that we need to create 125,000 jobs each month just to break even (to keep up with the loss of other jobs, and to keep up with the growth in the workforce). So we continue to LOSE JOBS under Bush.

But since no Republican wants to talk about Bush’s absolutely shitty domestic record, or the debacle he’s created in Iraq, they deflect the conversation by attacking Kerry.

6

I was actually surprised that John Kerry has reached a level of desperation to actually attack Bush on this issue.

When the first plane hit I, like many Americans thought it was a horrible air tragedy, nothing more.

The fact is President Bush responded appropriately when all of the information had been gathered. For anyone to even question what occurred simply smacks of desperation.

I wonder if it is all of the TV commercials airing with Kerry’s former comrades calling him unfit that rattled his cage? Who knows? Either way you can expect this latest low blow from Kerry to reflect an additional downward spike of 1% or 2% in the polls.

I am really starting to enjoy this election!

(By the way did anyone read about how “well” Kerry’s wife played at the convention? I think the liberal media is trying to hush it up. She ought to be good for a good 5pt drop by November)

7

[quote]Lumpy wrote:
When the chips were down, George Bush froze like a deer caught in the headlights.[/quote]

What exactly did you expect Bush to do during those first seven minutes?

Telepathically identify the organisation responsible, teleport into Osama bin Laden’s living room, and lasso him with duct tape to stand trial here in the U.S.? “Heeeeere I come to save the daaaaaaaaay!”

I don’t see why seven minutes is such a big deal. At times like 9/11, taking some extra time to think about your response is the only prudent course of action.

8

How do you know what was going on in those seven minutes?

I’d like proof that you were there in that classroom, Lumpy.

While your inability to engage in a logical thought process probably qualifies you to be in an elementary classroom, I’d like proof you were there.

What should Bush have done? Stepprd in front of the nearest microphone, and, with his best French salute, yell, “I’m George Bush and I’m reporting for duty!!!” ?

Have you asked Micheal Moore to go to homecoming with you, yet?

9

Here is where John Kerry was on 9/11…

Here’s what the Massachusetts Democrat said July 8 when Larry King asked where he was on 9/11, according to CNN’s own transcript:

“I was in the Capitol. We’d just had a meeting - we’d just come into a leadership meeting in Tom Daschle’s office, looking out at the Capitol. And as I came in, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon. And then word came from the White House, they were evacuating, and we were to evacuate, and so we immediately began the evacuation.”

And when you look at it, the second plane hit the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m., The plane that hit the Pentagon occurred at 9:43 a.m. So that means Kerry’s and his fellow senators sat there for forty minutes, realizing 'nobody could think.

So that is where Mr. Kerry was… I am sure Michael Moore doesn’t bring any of that out? Does he?

Joe

10

I don’t think Kerry is smart letting Michael Moore do his thinking.
To the average idiot who Moore appeals to, the criticism of why didn’t Bush jump up and start barking orders makes sense. I on the other hand look past that and ask what orders did the president need to bark? There are levels of the government under the president that automatically do what they are supposed to do, they don’t need the President to jump up and start barking to function. As far as I can see, the only orders that need to immediately come from the president when the United States is under attack is the order for nuclear retaliation. If I’m missing something Lumpy please tell us what orders he needed to give? Considering that he might have had to order Armageddon I think he handeled it very calmly.
As far as Kerry’s handling BB I think you have left something very important out. Here is a combat veteran who when all this is going on just sits there in the capitol building. For over forty minutes he sat there in one of the targets while people in Pennsylvania were fighting to save his life. Even after the Pentagon got hit he sat there till the white house told him what to do. Kerry trying to paint himself as a take charge leader is a joke. If I were Kerry I would have been getting the hell out of Dodge long before the pentagon got hit. That plane flew in a loop over the white house and the capitol while Kerry sat there waiting for orders. Kerry is stupid to have brought that up when his own actions were so indecisive and I think Bush can and should get in his ass over it.
Where Bush went on Air Force One I’m sure was decided by the Secret Service long before 9/11. That is of course if Bush was on Air Force One when it went to Nebraska. For all we know, Bush might have gone into a bunker in Florida and Air Force One was a diversion. In that case it would be idiotic to argue about where Air Force One went.

11

Lympy…your as unbiased as ever…go lift some weights wimp.

12

I can’t take anything that Lumpa says seriously. I mean, come on T-Folk; this guy is dumb enough to think that the job losses are the Bush Administration’s fault.

Lumpa, if you’re so damn smart, what exactly did the Bush Administration do that lead to the more than 3 million job loses?

Never mind. I know that you cannot articulate any logical thought, and you certainly would never entertain the thought that he had NOTHING TO F’N DO WITH IT!

13

And as I came in [to a meeting in Sen. Daschle’s office], Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think,

This sums up the Democrook agenda of the past decade quite well. If Gore was President we would still be negotiating with our enemies while mayhem rained down upon our country. This is a war and the radical Islamists will do anything to win.

14

Well as its in a large part the government’s responsibility to stimulate job growth with good fiscal policy and creating an atmousphere in which people feel safe investing and spending I would say Lumpy has a wee point. But then who really gives a crap if Bush sat for 7 minutes and Kerry for 40, the planes were already in the air and that 7 minute head start Bin Laden got wasn’t the reason he wasn’t captured, that was short sighted military planning.

15

[quote]JohnGullick wrote:
Well as its in a large part the government’s responsibility to stimulate job growth with good fiscal policy and creating an atmousphere in which people feel safe investing and spending I would say Lumpy has a wee point. But then who really gives a crap if Bush sat for 7 minutes and Kerry for 40, the planes were already in the air and that 7 minute head start Bin Laden got wasn’t the reason he wasn’t captured, that was short sighted military planning.[/quote]

The RISK to capture one man in a remote mountainous area is not the primary goal, forward operating areas for the possible future conflict with Iran is the primary goal, in addition to other secondary goals such as stability of the world’s oil supply. If the current group of liberals were in power in the late 30’s and 40’s, we wouldn’t have been involved in WWII until 1950; now that I think about it we should have waited, but then I couldn’t read your opinion since I don’t speak German.

16

With regards to GWB sitting tight for those seven minutes… Bush told the American people to not be afraid and to carry on with normal life as much as possible. How would it have looked if he jumped up and ran out in a panic? Besides, what could he himself have possibly done to stop what was already in progress??? Did you expect him to step into an F/18 super hornet and intercept the planes that were well on their way to the crash site? Or maybe man an anti-aircraft gun to shoot down any possible threats. Give me a fucking break. What too all of you probably days or weeks to comprehend too GWB seven god damn minutes. A lot was on his mind, and he had to think before he made any rash decisions. RLTW

rangertab75

17

AF1 didn’t go back to D.C because D.C. was presumably still under attack. It’s Standard Operating Procedure to Circle around, gather intel off of secure communication lines, figure out fact from fiction, then sit down and make rational decisions.

By all sense of the word, Kerry has used Michael Moore’s “7 minutes of shame” stance to let the F-911 crowd know that he’s either seen the movie or has been briefed enough on it to make a connection to that demographic (that scary, psycho demographic) who believes in the F-911 spin.

Anyone who jumps on Mr. Moore’s bandwagon or even tries to justify his propoganda as legitamate journalism is discrediting themselves, IMHO. Christ, Moore said in the Playboy interview that we should hire Israelis to kill Osama Bin-laden! What? Is he serious?

I still would like to see a democrat develop a hypothetical scenario on how Gore would have reacted during the initial hours of 9/11. Oh, and in which it didn’t involve the pooping of his pants, or the immediate retreat of all ships at sea and troops on the ground in foriegn lands.

If Kerry is worth his salt he’d stay away from Bush bashing and concentrate on the issues.

I’ve seen the stickers on cars that say “Anyone but Bush,” and “Clinton lied, but no-one died!” MTV is obviously pro-Kerry, Springstein and the Dixie Chicks are having their Bush bashing concerts, but all the while no-one remembers how the Clinton administration let this terrorism issue go unchecked for nearly a fucking decade and subsequently allowed it to become a nasty, festering, global problem. Shit the WTC got bombed once, we lost an Embassy in Africa, Christ we even lost the USS Cole in Yemen (which is near and dear to my heart, fair winds and following seas, brothers and sisters) yet all the Clinton administration did was jack shit! I’ve done my time in the Military for both administrations and I can tell you, this administration ACTS on shit, this administration doesn’t take any bullshit. The previous administration sat idly by, and would have still if a democrat was in office when 9/11 happened.

How exactly was President Bush supposed to react when we were finally attacked domestically? How would you liberals have reacted? Someone please tell me how the fuck you’re supposed to behave when your country is attacked on your own soil in the middle of a sunny September morning? Ideas? Anyone?

If the only thing that Mister Kerry can say on the issue is that “Bush waited 7 whole minutes” then I guess he doesn’t have too much to offer in the way of preventing the next attack. Has a specific strategy been defined by his camp? Damn I’d respect their stance at least little if they had one! All this energy spent on the “anyones is better than Bush” campaign is counterproductive to making effective changes.

And here I told myself I wasn’t going to rant…

Figures,

B.