I heard an interesting speech tonight at a fund raiser dinner I went to. The key note speaker was Andrew Card, president George W. Bush's Chief of Staff. For those that don't remember him, he was the guy who you saw whispering into Bush's ear on Sept. 11 at the elementary school to tell him about the attacks.
Card went through the entire day of 9/11 in his speech, things that were done and said through the day and the initial following days. He spoke about the Friday after 9/11, the day Bush went Ground Zero and spoke standing on a crushed fire engine. He talked about how when they arrived in NY Bush immediately got out and went into the crowd at the irritation of the Secret Service. Card said, and he's worked with three presidents, that the reception was unbelievable, there was no heckling, no booing, no single-digit salutes. He spoke about the room they had set up for Bush after he left Ground Zero to speak to the families of the policemen and firefighters who were still missing. They had set up a small stage and microphone for him to speak, but instead of speaking he walked right into the crowd and spoke to each person personally in the room, the entire event took hours.
Card also spoke of Bush's oath to office, about how he accepted that the job was a lonely one, it was not about being seen but that Bush recognized that it was his job to lead the people, not only in terms of governance but in national pride as well.
He also told one story that really stuck out, the Friday after 9/11 he and Bush were on a small plane headed back to DC, he said the president was worn out and wasn't saying a word. After a long silence Bush looked at Card and said, "They will forget, Americans will forget, it's in their nature."
All-in-all it was a good speech, it was a neat look into some things you don't get to hear all that often. One thing it left me with, or more or less reaffirmed for myself, Bush made some big mistakes, he had some big government tendencies that I very much disagree with, but there is no question, Bush understood the responsibility of the job, he took the position without a blatant arrogant approach and although he made mistakes, he represented America well.
I was and am still proud to have had George W. Bush as my president. Mistakes and all, he represented well what America is.
Hard to forget that pitch at the World Series:
