There are Statists who like to attack, vehemently, the decision by former President George W. Bush to continue reading the book “The Pet Goat” to school kids on September 11th, 2001. The President was notified of the terrorist attack in New York, and, instead of running out of the room, sat for seven full minutes, and finished the book with the group of children assembled at a Sarasota, FL elementary school.
Michael Moore created the laughable “documentary” Farenheit 911, in which he discusses this exact moment in history, and derides President Bush for not making a scene, and running for the nearest exit. (There are a lot of things you can go after President Bush for – border security, TARP, Iraq strategy – but this is just shallow nonsense, from a nonsense kind of guy.)
Now, it seems that the Obama Administration has it’s own Pet Goat moment. Current National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) director Michael Leiter, after finding out about the attack on Christmas Day, decided to react with the political saavy of a drunk Gary Hart, and stayed on vacation…skiing. The NCTC (created after the 911 Commission, and Leiter an appointee of former President Bush) has stated that it does not comment on the director’s schedule, which means no one really knows when Director Leiter returned. What is clear, was that it was not Christmas Day, and it was not the next day. We can safely assume that Director Leiter waited at least 48 hours to return home after learning about a terrorist attack on American soil. 48 Hours. That’s 2880 minutes. Or, 2873 minutes more than President Bush waited.
If we are going to start timing people on the reactions, then we are going to do it for everyone. And after we do it, we’re going to honestly recognize the context in which that reaction time occurs. President Bush was talking to young children, reading them a book. He waited seven minutes. Director Letier was on vacation, skiing. He waited 2880 minutes. (Also, President Bush was back in his office the same night – beating Director Leiter by 1440 minutes.)
And if all of this isn’t enough to get you to recognize the massive double standard, and the failure of Director Letier in the common sense reaction to a terrorist attack that the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center should have, then simply look at President Obama. It took him 72 hours to respond to the terrorist attack on Christmas Day.
That’s 4320 minutes.
