this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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This situation pisses me even more than when I saw George W. Bush sitting in that Florida classroom on September 11, 2001. After being told that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center, he just continued listening the kids read 'Kite must hit steel.' He sat there, seemingly unfazed, as if it were normal for a U.S. president to hear about such a catastrophic attack and not react immediately. And now, here we are again, what the hell is Trump doing playing golf while the global economy collapses?
Okay, so Bush was there because of 9/11. It's not that the government knew about 9/11 in advance and got POTUS out of the area. It's that the government gets hundreds/thousands of threats a day, and that one was credible enough they got Bush out of town just to be safe. Then, when it happened, Bush didn't react because he was in a classroom full of kids and he did not want to upset them.
I'm not saying Bush was a saint, he wasn't, but a couple things he did weren't as bad as people think. That's what that was. As for the "you don't get fooled again" quote, he knew if he said "shame on me," the Democrats would use the sound byte, and he was correct. So he course corrected. Made himself look like an idiot to prevent his opposition from making him look worse.
Still a bad guy, but let's be fair, especially with information we've learned since.
Why are you bringing all that up? I'm going to be annoyed at the situation whether or not the US government knew or was responsible for 9/11. Jumping to his defense seems the kind of thing a glowie would do.
You're the one that brought up Bush and his reaction. If you can't understand why someone would act like nothing was wrong in a room full of young schoolchildren, then you're sure as hell not mentally prepared to make serious claims that someone's a government plant.
I brought up Bush’s reaction as an example of leadership failure, to highlight how tone-deaf it is for leaders to act indifferent in a crisis, regardless of the reason. And it’s ironic you’re resorting to ad hominem attacks about my intelligence when that’s the weakest form of argument.
So, you still don't understand why it wouldn't be appropriate to react strongly in a room full of kids is what you're saying.
It's not an ad hominem when calling out your inability to comprehend the reason for that is the entire point to my comment. It highlights a severe deficiency in your social awareness at the bare minimum, which doesn't reflect well on your ability to discern the motives of other people online. Does that spell it out directly enough?
Fine, let's put that aside. In your eyes, what would have been an appropriate response for Bush to take in that situation? This ought to be entertaining.