Seven Minutes

That's the time "lost" when President Bush continued reading to school children after he was told about the Twin Towers attack. I wasn't there that morning, I was about, oh, twenty to thirty miles north working when I heard the news. After that I, like the rest of the people I work with, and most of the world, was glued to the TV, stopping only to answer telephones and tend to whatever business could not be put on hold.

I, personally, am glad that President Bush took those seven minutes. It gave time for more information to be gathered. I am of the opinion that there was little he personally could have done in that seven minutes except allow others to get the information needed so that he could thoughtfully, intelligently, and with somewhat more knowledge, go before the television cameras.

He was not told that it was a terrorist attack. He was told that a plane had flown into one tower. The second had not yet struck. No one at that time, including President Bush, had any idea of what was happening. Should he have jumped up, hysterically screaming that we're under attack? What good would that have done? Even if he had taken the tack that Senator Kerry says he would have taken, to tell the children, very politely and nicely of course, that the President had something he needed to attend to, what good would it have done? While he continued to read to the children, information was gathered, he had a better idea of what had happened, and hten he went before the cameras. He showed leadership and maturity of thought.

An intelligent person with common sense waits until he has sufficient information to make comment before he opens his big piehole. A different type of person leaps before the cameras before he knows what he's going to say.

It comes with character. And, once again, it is about character.