Seven Minutes

**Piña** · June 27th, 2004, 04:21 PM

On 9/11, a Telling Seven-Minute Silence
Interpreting the President's Image in Crisis

By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 19, 2004; Page C01

You're at a photo op, reading a book with schoolchildren and an aide suddenly whispers that a second plane has hit the World Trade Center. "America is under attack."

You're the president of the United States. What do you do?

There have been other moments like this in American history, when the chief executive was suddenly plunged into a crisis, but they weren't caught on videotape. George W. Bush was on camera in an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla. He could see the pagers of reporters and photographers going off, one by one. He was on the spot like few people have ever been.

From two different angles, Americans have new glimpses of that historic moment. One comes from rabble-rousing Michael Moore, whose Bush-eviscerating film "Fahrenheit 9/11" premieres next week, and includes an uninterrupted seven-minute segment showing Bush's reaction after hearing the news of the attack. He doesn't move.

Instead he continues to sit in the classroom, listening to children read aloud. Moore lets the tape roll as the minutes pass painfully by.

And now from a second angle: The staff of the 9/11 Commission this week released a report that summarizes Bush's closed-door testimony about his thoughts as he sat there.

"The President told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis . . . The President felt he should project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening."

This moment will surely be used by the president's political opponents, and with equal fervor defended by his supporters. However it is interpreted, it points out a basic truth about any president: He's both an executive and a symbolic figure. He's the spiritual leader of the nation as well as the head of state. He's monarch and prime minister.

Sometimes he has to decide what role to take.

Presidential historian Robert Dallek of Boston University thinks Bush focused too much on appearances, rather than leaping into action.

"It speaks volumes about the preoccupation these politicians have about manipulating image," Dallek said yesterday. Bush should have immediately excused himself and started figuring out what was happening and what he could do. "The way to project calm and strength is to take care of business."

Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at the University of New Orleans, concurs: "I don't understand how one sits there. I just don't. Minutes are an eternity in that sort of situation. . . . A quick presidential decision may save lives."

Brinkley credits Bush with dusting himself off after a rough first day and regaining his composure. And he acknowledges that few presidents have had to endure such a Candid Camera moment. But Brinkley adds, "Character is not defined in good times, when you've been properly briefed, it's defined when you're in a desperate crisis situation."

Presidential scholar Fred Greenstein, a professor emeritus at Princeton, defends Bush's response in the initial minutes.

"It's made a little more complex by being in the presence of little kids," Greenstein said. "It certainly wouldn't present the right message if he turned white, rushed out, and kids started crying."

The commission report this week is not the first glimpse into Bush's thought processes in the critical minutes after the first planes crashed. Bush has previously told Bob Woodward, "They had declared war on us, and I made up my mind at that moment that we were going to war."

Eventually, at the suggestion of an aide, Bush got up and went to a holding room. He spoke briefly to the vice president, his national security adviser, the governor of New York and the head of the FBI, according to the commission report. Then, the report states, Bush spent roughly 15 minutes working on what he'd say to the cameras at the elementary school. He was acting as Communicator in Chief, in a sense. With his senior aides, he worked on his lines.

"As far as we know, no one was in contact with the Pentagon. The focus was on the President's statement to the nation. No decisions were made at this time, other than the decision to return to Washington," the report states. The president was persuaded to fly to Louisiana and then Nebraska before finally returning to the capital.

Presidents of an earlier era did not have to contend with so many cameras and microphones and the endless appetite for material to put on 24-hour cable news channels. Greenstein said that there are anecdotal reports that, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR held his head in his hands and despaired of the future of his presidency. But that is not the image Americans retain of Roosevelt's reaction.

Instead we think of his powerful address to Congress the next day -- his "date which will live in infamy" speech.

Nor do we have tape of John F. Kennedy learning that the Soviets had placed missiles in Cuba. Sally Bedell Smith, author of a new book on the Kennedy White House, says that his national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, didn't even pass the portentous news to Kennedy for about 12 hours. Kennedy had returned from an exhausting campaign trip. Bundy decided that "a quiet evening and a night of sleep were the best preparation" for the critical days ahead. As the crisis unfolded, Kennedy slept.

Americans did not see Lyndon Johnson's immediate reaction to the assassination of JFK. But Johnson, who had been in the same motorcade, made a quick image-conscious decision: Although he automatically became president upon Kennedy's death, he arranged to be sworn in on Air Force One with Jackie Kennedy at his side. The photograph of that moment became iconic, not so much because of the somber Johnson as for the shocked widow with blood on her dress.

"He wanted this as a symbol of his authority," Dallek said. "Jackie is at his side and she's giving legitimacy to his presidency."

Bush was conscious on Sept. 11 of the need, for symbolic reasons, to return to Washington, but was persuaded by the Secret Service, Cheney and other aides that the situation was too risky. Some critics, Dallek among them, say Bush should have overruled his aides. The commission report states that all participants agree that Bush argued forcefully for returning.

The commission report portrays a discombobulated government that can't even keep track of the hijacked planes. Fighter planes fly in the wrong direction, pilots have no idea why they're in the air (maybe a cruise missile attack?), orders don't get passed along the chain of command. Everyone's flying blind. The president borrows a cell phone to try to get through to the White House.

Symbolically and substantively, the ship of state was foundering.

But even the harshest critics concede that the nation's spiritual leader rallied in the days thereafter. His bullhorn performance on the rubble of the World Trade Center is considered a bravura moment. He made compelling appearances at the National Cathedral, before Congress, and in a news conference in the East Room of the White House. When professional baseball resumed play, he courageously walked to the mound in a crowded stadium and threw out the first pitch.

Some of these images will reappear in the months ahead as the election nears and the commercials begin to saturate the airwaves. The president has surely had some excellent moments.

And seven excruciating minutes.

Source: Washington Post

**cincygreg** · June 28th, 2004, 04:21 AM

No President had ever dealt with an attack on Civillians like that.

And Micheal Moore probably cant go seven minutes without a doughnut.

**gae** · June 28th, 2004, 09:09 AM

From two different angles, Americans have new glimpses of that historic moment. One comes from rabble-rousing Michael Moore, whose Bush-eviscerating film "Fahrenheit 9/11" premieres next week, and includes an uninterrupted seven-minute segment showing Bush's reaction after hearing the news of the attack. He doesn't move.

What was the time lapse between the first plane hitting and the second? About 10 minutes, wasn't it?

This seven minute thing is so bogus. NOBODY knew what was going on.

But then again, I suppose Republican presidents are supposed to have super powers, huh?

**reason** · June 28th, 2004, 11:55 AM

Originally posted by gae:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />From two different angles, Americans have new glimpses of that historic moment. One comes from rabble-rousing Michael Moore, whose Bush-eviscerating film "Fahrenheit 9/11" premieres next week, and includes an uninterrupted seven-minute segment showing Bush's reaction after hearing the news of the attack. He doesn't move.

What was the time lapse between the first plane hitting and the second? About 10 minutes, wasn't it?

This seven minute thing is so bogus. NOBODY knew what was going on.

But then again, I suppose Republican presidents are supposed to have super powers, huh?<hr /></blockquote>Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 7 minutes was after the second plane hit.

**jumper69** · June 28th, 2004, 02:27 PM

So lemme see if I get this right: W was reading to a class of children when he was told that America was under attack. Then he paused 7 minutes.

7 WHOLE FREAKING MINUTES!!! Know what I say to that?

WHO FUCKING CARES????

Put yourself in his position. Kid's one minute, 3000+ deaths the next. And he's supposed to immediately jump into action. Give me a freaking break.

I think he could have waited 60 mintues and I wouldn't have cared.

People have way too much time on their hands I think.

**Piña** · June 28th, 2004, 04:02 PM

Originally posted by Jumper69:
What would have been the approriate response Pina? What would President Pina have done?

Your hatred of Bush seems to be quickly overiding your ability to think rationally.

The appropriate response for the commander in chief of the entire armed forces, the head honcho, the one who is supposed to be able to make instant decisions if needed would at the very least have been to get away from the children and to a secure location where he could have done his fucking job.

President Pina, thank you very much, would have gotten off his ass and away from the children. He would have hightailed it to the nearest safe location, most likely airforce one, where he could be at the center of both intelligence and command. He would have done his goddamned job.

[ June 28, 2004 01:03 PM: Message edited by: Pi?a ]

**jumper69** · June 28th, 2004, 04:03 PM

The fucking republicans took down a president for a damned blowjob and you expect us to forgive this coward for his inaction at what was one of the most important moments in recent history.

So that's what this is? Revenge??

Could Bush have reacted quicker? Probably? Is it important in the overall scheme of things. Hardly.

**travelinman** · June 28th, 2004, 04:03 PM

Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert "Buzz" Patterson was a military aide to President Clinton from May 1996 to May 1998 and one of five individuals entrusted with carrying the "nuclear football"?the bag containing the codes for launching nuclear weapons. This responsibility meant that he spent a considerable amount of time next to the president, giving him a unique perspective on the Clinton administration. Though he arrived at the job "filled with professional devotion and commitment to serve," he left believing that Clinton had "sown a whirlwind of destruction upon the integrity of our government, endangered our national security, and done enormous harm to the American military in which I served."

http://www.bookfinder.us/review9/0895261405.html

**reason** · June 28th, 2004, 04:09 PM

Originally posted by Pi?a:
Jumper

There are protocols that are supposed to be followed. Contingencies that are supposed to be in place for emergencies.

Sitting on your ass staring off into space aint one of them.

He should at the very, very least have moved away from the children and gotten to a secure location where he could have done something presidential like LEAD!!!

As I said before he isn't supposed to be "just another guy" He's supposed to be the best we can find. Freezing up in the face of a crisis is unacceptable.

The fucking republicans took down a president for a damned blowjob and you expect us to forgive this coward for his inaction at what was one of the most important moments in recent history.

Man, I sure hope you expected better of your teammates while you were serving.

While I'm not a fan of Bush, in the grand scheme of things I'd say he handled himself exceptionally well throughout what can be considered a most unique and thoroughly heinous event.

I'm sure people can find reasons to differ, but I question if that seven minutes was material.

**cincygreg** · June 28th, 2004, 04:15 PM

I never said Bush was "my hero"

And you can post your nonsense all you want.

Never before has this country been attacked in this fashion. The TERRORISTS (not the rebublican party) used commercial jets filled with civilians as weapons to destroy civilian targets and yes, the pentagon.

Nothing like this has ever happened before and I think it's pretty arrogant to sit there and claim that you would have done things so much differently. That's all speculation.

Reguardless of whether or not mistakes were made, there were no guidlines or history from which to refer to. This was an original incident.

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