Bush may join Obama at Ground-Zero on Thurs?

[Graybeard]

I just heard on local news show (WPIX) that President Obama may be accompanied by G.W. Bush when he visits the Ground-Zero site to meet with families of 9/11 victims this coming Thursday.

Has this been reported anywhere else?

[tekisui]

1. Ugh. Really?

[RichGirl]

35. This isn't about who Bush is....

It's about who Obama is. He is a man with class and dignity who would never disrespect a former president! He, of all people, knows that a lot of people played a role and he will give everyone of them credit! Who would expect less of him???

I'm also a little bit selfish here....I WANT HIM RE-ELECTED! There are a lot of republicans who are NOT teabaggers who respect and admire Bush. It would be very stupid of Obama to alienate or offend those people by not including Bush in something that, for better or worse, he played a big part in. He would not do that as a person, president or candidate.

[tilsammans]

53. Agree with you!

Besides (I also say selfishly), Bush will look like the twit he is next to the dignified and total class President Obama.

Bring it on!!! :bounce:

[kenny blankenship]

2. No no no FUCK NO!

Is he coming to apologize for not pursuing Bin Laden from 2003 through 2008?

Bush deserves NO credit or limelight for this.

[TheDebbieDee]

3. Oh, God, no! Please......just......no!

[RoadRage]

4. If so, I say Kudos to both GWB and Obama

09/11 is something that impacted all Americans... Being above politics for a day is a great idea in my mind. let people of BOTH political parties have a chance to celebrate, mourn and move on together...

[leveymg]

10. You must be kidding. Dubya was responsible for those deaths, if only by criminal negligence.

That's like inviting a drunk truck driver to the funeral of a school bus full of kids he plowed into.

F-ck no.

[RoadRage]

39. I'm not kidding...

Yeah - we know all Dems HATE Bush.. just like all republicans HATE Obama.

My point is for ONCE, let's make 1 event non political. People have already decided if they're giving Bush or Obama credit for the "Osama" kill.. showing up at Ground Zero together isn't going to change that... and more people are leaning to Obama then Bush.

[leveymg]

50. Bush has disgraced himself. No place of honor for him on anything 9/11 related.

He brings nothing but the unclean odor of the victims of an unpunished crime half covered over.

[CakeGrrl]

16. Why the hell should GWB get ANY kudos

after dismissing the "dead or alive" bravado six months after 9/11 by saying "I don't know where he is" and saying OBL wasn't important?

IF true, this is nothing but a pure magnanimous act on President Obama's part.

But if Bush is asked, Clinton should be too. He was looking for OBL before Bush.

[RoadRage]

40. Who said anything about Kudos?

They're showing up together at an event that both presidents have been directly involved in. And yeah -I have no problems with Clinton being their either.. that would be fine.

I just think for once we can be above politics for the day.. some people hate Obama.. some hate Bush. For one day, just mourn those lost on 09/11 - celebrate Osama being taken out.. and be AMERICAN instead of Dem or Republican for 1 day!

[Wait Wut]

36. +1

It would also highlight the graciousness of our current President. Nothing wrong with attempting to heal this wound. Too many pros to this decision to cry about the cons.

[RoadRage]

41. Thanks.. i think you & I are in the minority here...

:)

[Peacetrain]

42. No you are not

Everyone knows President Obama was the one that actually got Bin Laden.. But I hope all the living Presidents are there.

This is a moment that goes beyond politics.

We can argue the details later.

Well maybe I would like to see Rumsfeld in a cell..but the American people need a moment of unity in that this guy is gone.

Does not mean the threats are gone..but we can refocus and start to get our troops out of there. I know we start the pullout of Afghanistan in July, and the Iraq pullout is already under way.. Just finally after 10 years.

This is winding down.

[Vanje]

5. Oh Hell

Why not invite Trump too? and Dick Cheney?

[Graybeard]

6. I'm sure Rudy will be sniffing around too. n/t

[kenny blankenship]

9. You're twisting the knife!

[Wednesdays]

21. They'll wheel in St. Ronnie's corpse, too

for good measure.
:eyes:

[KittyWampus]

7. He would be booed. Guaranteed.

[leftynyc]

27. No he wont

President Obama will get the big cheers but bush will not get booed. This is going to mean a lot to the families and they wont ruin the moment.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tekisui]

8. Why is Obama even going? Seems a little too 'mission accomplishedy'.

I thought the tone of the speech was perfect. Why the victory lap?

[Thrill]

11. Why even give that piece of shit any limelight for this?

He started the Iraq war for no justifiable reason. Obama again goes way too far with the bipartisan nonsense

[jillan]

12. Obama, this is one time when you don't need to compromise. Enjoy the limelight - you earned it.

[grasswire]

13. nooooooooooooooo

no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
please.......no

[tranche]

14. Then throw Bill in there too.

If its PresidEnts efectes by the guy, then we need all three. This wreaks of "fair and balanced".

[jillan]

15. YES - Bill Clinton should be there. He was also the one who warned Bush about OBL.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

24. ditto

Clinton was ridiculed and accused of covering for monica when he tried to take on Bin laden. He was the first to see the threat and would be a more appropriate pick for any ground zero ceremony

[liberalpragmatist]

23. And Bin Laden killed Americans under Clinton's watch too

I'm not blaming him, btw - just pointing out that he will want justice as much as Bush and Obama.

[Beacool]

25. Bill could probably walk from his office to Ground Zero.

His new office is nearby on Water St.

:-)

[karynnj]

31. I hadn't heard that he moved out of Harlem

I was going to question whether a man, with his health in his 60s could walk nearly the entire length of Manhattan! Possible, but even on a lovely day, not likely. But Water street is entirely possible - depending on where on water street a pleasant 15 minute to a half hour walk I think. (back in the 1970s, I worked in one of the little WTC buildings and we wondered all over that area at lunch time.

[Beacool]

45. He needed more space for the the foundation.

He moved to larger quarters in dowtown Manhattan not long ago (I can't remember the month), but kept the Harlem office too.

:-)

[karynnj]

52. Thanks

[AtomicKitten]

17. Ugh.

Junior blew off his promise of capturing/killing OBL at Tora Bora early on. He doesn't belong sharing the stage to take a bow for fucking up.

:puke:

[Drunken Irishman]

18. I see no verification of this story...

So I think it's just a baseless rumor by that local news station.

[bigwillq]

19. It really is a boys club (nt)

[LiberalFighter]

20. Do they have a hole to push GW into and fill with cement?

[ailsagirl]

22. UGH is right-- let's hope not

:puke:

[lamp_shade]

26. Good idea, but only if Bill Clinton is there too.

[trusty elf]

28. Bushmeat?

[BlueIris]

30. I was kind of wondering when Smirk would crawl out from under his rock.

Ew.

[RichGirl]

32. Of course he is!!

He was president when it happened. To not include him would be thoughtless and petty.
And I would hope that the crowd would give them equal respect.
President Obama is class all the way. He's not going to sink down to the level of those who hate Bush.


And...oh what fun for the republicans, to see just how much class he has since they've been going on and on how he's hogging the spotlight.


On edit...having read most responses...I have to ask, are any of you over the age of 12???

Your acting like this is some sort of playground game!

[tallahasseedem]

33. No...

In fact, fuck no.

[bigdarryl]

34. Where the hell is Jimmy Carter

[Freddie Stubbs]

37. He's busy undermining Obama's foreign policy:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/carter-criticises-us-over-north-korea-aid-20110429-1e0r7.html

[harun]

38. As he should be. Good for Jimmy.

[karynnj]

54. I would want a more detailed quote from Carter before arguing that he is

undermining Obama's foreign policy. I do think that his comment - in North Korea - is unwarranted. Also, there were equally negative comments made abroad by Al Gore when Bush was President - and I doubt anyone said that he was "undermining Bush". (I agreed with them.)

The fact is that this is not about the government - it is about people who are starving - and a government that is not likely to care enough to change policy to get food for the innocent people starving. There are not only good moral reasons to do so, but good long term political reasons. Not every good deed is rewards, but some actually are. We have farmers with extra food and the US government buying it and giving it to NK is a stimulation project.

Carter is not the only Democrat in favor of this - here is Chairman Kerry's statement. http://foreign.senate.gov/press/chair/release/?id=2768bdfc-7e8a-4132-888f-2325289e60ff given in a SFRC hearing - not overseas. (He is known as a stalwart ally of Obama - and I find that whenever they disagree - I usually agree with the Senator.)

Here I agree 100%:

Washington, DC – Today, the UN World Food Program (WFP) released an assessment of the food situation in parts of North Korea and the results are dire. The WFP warns that six million North Koreans are in urgent need of food assistance, confirming results of a similar study by five respected U.S. non-governmental organizations conducted last month. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) issued the following statement urging the resumption of carefully monitored United States food aid to North Korea:

“All of us harbor deep concerns about the character and recent conduct of the North Korean government. It is tempting to withhold food assistance until North Korea abandons its pursuit of nuclear weapons or adopts economic reforms. But the North demonstrated during the famine in the mid-to-late 1990s, in which an estimated 5-10 percent of ordinary North Koreans died, that it is willing to allow its people to suffer enormously. As Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell recently testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ‘the choice really, is whether these people are allowed to starve.’

“Our country has long and wisely separated humanitarian concerns from politics. Consistent with that tradition, if we have the ability to verify that food will reach the intended recipients, then we should resume food aid to prevent a major famine and ease the suffering of the North Korean people.

“A rigorous monitoring program, modeled on the one implemented by the Bush Administration in 2008 through a consortium of U.S. NGOs, can give us high confidence that our aid is reaching the intended recipients. Food aid should be delivered only to targeted at-risk populations, such as infants, pregnant or nursing women, and the elderly. Shipments should be traceable from port, to county, to town, to distribution point. Korean-speaking U.S. citizens should be allowed random access to aid sites to oversee deliveries, and the packaging on the food should make clear to the recipients that the assistance reflects the generosity of the American people. These reasonable safeguards will help ensure the integrity of any aid initiative.”

[KingFlorez]

43. Does he have any shame?

That's a stupid question, actually, since we already know the answer. I should have known he would push himself in on this, he's got to try and take credit.

[Bake]

44. My goodness, OUR PRESIDENT IS ONE CLASSY GUY!!

A man who is secure in his identity has no problem sharing the stage with that teeny little troll ...

Way to go, Sir!

Bake

[onpatrol98]

46. +1

It will make the President look more secure...and for the Bush haters...take heart...imagine how President Smirk will feel standing there next to the taller, more articulate, even more handsome, better educated, African American male...who took down Bin Laden, when he couldn't after 8 years.

Living well is always the best revenge.

[yellowcanine]

47. Well Bush was officially the (Selected) President on 9-11......

So this would be appropriate, whether we like it or not. And it does have the advantage of highlighting just which President has been the most effective at bringing the actual terrorists to justice. Not all bad, imo.

[vaberella]

48. From what I read. Obama will be there but not joining Bush directly.

It seems he's doing his own moves down there. There's no full agreement he's joining Bush.

[NYC Liberal]

49. Let them next to each other and let people really see the contrast

between the smirking chimp and a real president.

Even better if Clinton is there!

[RichGirl]

51. I think the two presidents would be appropriate.

But I agree with you. Bush without the president title and swagger...will seem like a small and insignificant man. It will be very clear which one is presidential.

[krabigirl]

56. The contrast?

[krabigirl]

55. Perfect. Nt