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| International |
| Guardian: "Where are you Mr President?" |
| 2001-09-14 |
He made it to the Pentagon (though not quickly) but New York, which believes it suffered in less than an hour on Tuesday what Londoners endured for years during the war, was still president-less yesterday afternoon. He'll be there today, prompted by the outcry, but many New Yorkers say it's too late. The city has taken grave offence. As one veteran New York observer put it to me yesterday, "Who needs Bush anyway? We'll get through this without him." ... While the world was glued to its TV sets, and while New York's firefighters were wading into burning buildings to save lives, the president was conducting a unique aerial tour of the American heartland. Advised that it was unsafe to return to Washington, he flew first from Florida to Shreveport, Louisiana, and finally to Offutt air force base in Omaha, Nebraska - touching down in each spot to read yet another scripted statement. For long spells during that eerie day, no one even knew where the president was. It was as if the Democratic slogan directed against Bush's father during the 1988 election campaign had come alive again: "Where was George?" ... They know Clinton would never have allowed himself to be ferried in secret around the country like a deposed head of state fleeing a coup. He would have wanted to send the message that he was in command, unafraid and defiantly denying the terrorists the pleasure of emptying the capital. But that is the least of it. Clinton would have known how to find the right beat, to have sensed the national mood and addressed it. That almost supernatural talent for empathy was his greatest political gift. This week has proved that his successor, though hailed for his affable, neighbour-at-the-barbecue charm, has no such talent. He seems wooden, unreflective and oddly out of tune with human emotion. Small wonder that the secret service codename for the Bush presidential zone is "the package". They don't come much more packaged than George W. (The Guardian Unlimited Jonathan Freedland) |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |