GWB on 9/11: "But the day ended on a relatively humorous note.

[Ladewig]

The latest issue of Ladies Home Journal (Oct. '03) includes an interview with the President and the First Lady. When asked about what it was like to be reunited with each other at the end of 9/11, GWB tells what he thinks is a humorous anectdote about what he and Laura must have looked like when they were woken up in the middle of the night by a secret service agent who believed the White House was under a specific threat.


text of interview. (http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php)


I'll preface my opinion of GWB with my opinion of Bill Clinton. For me it wasn't the sex, it wasn't the lying, it was the downright stupidity. He was being investigated by someone with unlimited subpoena power and a $15 million budget. He chose that particular time to start an affair in the Oval Office.

With Bush, it isn't the lying, it isn't the arrogance, it's the stupidity. Even if he thought it was funny, telling a national magazine that he thought it was funny is stupid.

[TruthSeeker]

I read it imagining how I would experience those events. I'd be scared and angry and feel vulnerable. I just can't imagine worrying about which slippers I'm wearing when in such a vulnerable position. Yes, they got the "all clear" at that moment but how could they know there wouldn't be another attack at any moment? How could they not be devastated at the new reality?

Fuzzy slippers....:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:


As for telling the nation, yes, it is stupid and insensitive. I'm sure all those who lost someone will be glad to know the prez and his wife had a good chuckle during their first night without their loved one. :mad:

[arcticpenguin]

I say lighten up. There are a lot more substantive reasons to despise Dubya.

[TruthSeeker]

Originally posted by arcticpenguin
I say lighten up. There are a lot more substantive reasons to despise Dubya.


Agreed but stupid and insensitive deserve to be on the list.

[SRW]

A close friend of mine was killed when the first plane hit the towers. After I found out about it I was on the phone to a mutual friend. We talked about him and in the end we both were in tears from laughter.

I guess that makes me a heartless stupid bastard huh?

[TruthSeeker]

Originally posted by SRW
A close friend of mine was killed when the first plane hit the towers. After I found out about it I was on the phone to a mutual friend. We talked about him and in the end we both were in tears from laughter.

I guess that makes me a heartless stupid bastard huh?


That's very different. You were remembering and honoring your friend's life.

Laughter in that situation speaks of affection and warmth.

GWB wasn't laughing in memory of the goodness of those who'd died, he was laughing because he thought he might have looked funny!

Sorry if the distinction isn't clear. Bedtime approaches.

[SRW]

Originally posted by TruthSeeker



That's very different. You were remembering and honoring your friend's life.

Laughter in that situation speaks of affection and warmth.

GWB wasn't laughing in memory of the goodness of those who'd died, he was laughing because he thought he might have looked funny!

Sorry if the distinction isn't clear. Bedtime approaches.

Gallows humor as it is often called is a natural defense mechanism, people under stress will find the most odd things funny, its a part of being human.

[TruthSeeker]

Originally posted by SRW


Gallows humor as it is often called is a natural defense mechanism, people under stress will find the most odd things funny, its a part of being human.


Perhaps I am unkind, but I think this story is about much more than the natural defense mechanism you describe (I completely agree with that by the way). I think he probably just did not appreciate the horror of what had happened ~ the prez of the USA being unsafe in his own bed.

And as was mentioned earlier, even if it was a stress-release thing, why tell this story when some will find it insensitive to have a Prez laughing while the nation cries?

[SRW]

Originally posted by TruthSeeker



And as was mentioned earlier, even if it was a stress-release thing, why tell this story when some will find it insensitive to have a Prez laughing while the nation cries?

And if he had been crying then there are people who would say he was weak. Why is it insensitive to be human? The people who make a big stink over something so normal are always going to find fault, even when its not there.

[dissonance]

As much as I hate GWB, I have to go with defense mechanism on this one. A couple of days ago I found out someone very important in my life is now in the end stages of terminal cancer, and while the group of people I was with when we found out started out hugely depressed, we did do a fair amount of laughing as well.

Sometimes humour is all you really have.

[Jessica Blue]

I agree...

Although America had just suffered the worst attack ever on our own soil, somehow this man was able to end his day on a funny note. I wonder how many of the 3,000 families who lost someone earlier that day had a funny ending before they went to sleep?

This is too precious by far. Bush may well be an insensitive dolt, but I don't think this article is proof of it. It's possible to be miserable-in-sympathy AND have a few moments of humour, even at the height of a tragedy.

[Ladewig]

I understand your point. He did, after all, wait two years to reveal his response. But considering we are talking about a man who mocked a death-row inmate in front of reporters, I see it as insensitivitiy. I cannot imagine the same quote coming from Chenney or Powell or Rumsfeld.

[Tricky]

At least he didn't say "Bring it on."

[Regnad Kcin]

"Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta." (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splunge/message/2380)

[Clancie]

Posted by Laedwig

I cannot imagine the same quote coming from Cheney...or Rumsfeld.
I agree, but only because neither Cheney nor Rumsfeld shows much evidence of a sense of humor.

Personally, I can't stand Bush and I find him shallow. But I have to agree with those who don't find fault with this particular comment.

Many people try to find the humor in everyday life, even in the most stressful situations and he seems to me like that kind of person. I think that's probably one way that he and Laura have successfully coped with all the many stressors in their life together through the years.

I think Bush is just used to cracking self deprecating jokes like this and assumes other people appreciate them (in person, people probably respond to it very well). And, in fairness, the humor wasn't related to the WTC collapse, but to the incongruity of what he and Laura were doing when they had to react to a false alarm of an airplane attacking the White House.

He's insensitive imo, but not for this kind of thing.