Bush stepped out of the limo and toured the ruin. He was dressed casually in a dun-colored windbreaker. The ground was still shifting and unstable, dangerous and fiery. No preparation had been made for Bush to speak. The plan had been for him to deliver remarks later in the day, at a meeting with families of the missing at the Javits Convention Center, uptown in the West Thirties. At ground zero, there was no microphone, no sound system. Bush had no notes. But the crowd of workers pressed in close upon him, seething with emotion, and Bush decided he had to speak. Somebody passed him a bullhorn. A retired firefighter, Bill Beckwith, climbed atop a wrecked fire truck and jumped up and down on it to check its strength. Bush climbed up beside him. He put an arm around Beckwith's shoulders to help him keep his balance-and then left it there. He began to speak, to tell the workers that the whole nation was praying for them and for the city of New York. But his mouth was too close to the mouthpiece and the sound garbled. A worker shouted, "We can't hear you!" So Bush pulled the bullhorn away from his face and replied with a characteristic Bush joke: "Well, I can hear you." Then his face grew serious. "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Was the crowd shouting before? It was roaring now. USA! USA! USA! - "The Right Man", by David Frum
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...102-1087732-9718569?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/rescue.video.09.html#14th
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010914-9.v.html
"Can the first bombs be food?" - George W. Bush to senior advisors during the planning of the war in Afghanistan
While aid groups criticize U.S. food drops, Afghan refugees are welcoming the peanut butter that falls from the sky. "I was full for the first time in three years," says refugee Rajaballi (like many Afghans, he only goes by one name). He especially liked the small packets of salt and pepper, he adds. The political effects of the aid might not be as straightforward as U.S. planners would hope. For his part, Ahmed Khan has no worries about politics and he certainly isn't complaining otherwise. "It's very good," he says of the U.S. aid rations. "We eat it."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3067540/
Now another Republican President has needed to calm a grieving nation, and George W. Bush did well. His address at the Houston Memorial Service proved, once again, that his pre-election critics' claims of a "bumbling Bush" were hogwash. His choice of words and uplifting theme were so similar to Reagan's, I felt as if I were taken back 17 years to Peggy Noonan's classic "Challenger Speech." And at the service, the President showed the kind side we all knew he had (so similar to that of his father) when he offered Commander Rick Husband's son a handkerchief. The boy will forever have that memory to cherish-a thoughtful, considerate President of the United States, who cared enough to console him at his daddy's memorial service. President Reagan was known as a "great communicator", and his training in acting no doubt was an asset. But he was honest, as well, in his delivery, and he spoke only what he believed. The same goes for President Bush. Though his training was in business and not on stage, during his Presidency, Mr. Bush has been able to communicate honestly, convincingly, and compassionately. Can you imagine how sincere Al Gore would have seemed delivering the Columbia Memorial Address, or worse yet, Bill Clinton?
http://www.bushcountry.org/news/col...03_guenthner-president-bush-ronald-reagan.htm
US marines took Safwan at about 8am yesterday. Ajami Saadoun Khlis, whose son and brother were executed under the Saddam regime, sobbed like a child on the shoulder of the Guardian's Egyptian translator. He mopped the tears but they kept coming. "You just arrived," he said. "You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,919642,00.html