Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Meeting the President

After all the hype about Cindy Sheehan, here is a completely different account of a meeting between Bush and some grieving parents. In the Huffington Post of all places.

A few excerpts:

This just happened in February, he was already re-elected, so he didn't have to meet with us. The most powerful man in the universe still thinks of the families after being elected to 2nd term. It meant a lot, he impressed the living daylights out of me. He's a very strong character, very strong person, and explained a lot about his life, explained much of what he went through, and his wife and family, he was very down to earth.
It was the most amazing thing to see how compassionate the President was. He just walked in as if he was one of family, and walked right up, and hugged them. Adie was crying. He was wonderful with her. He was getting upset too. They sat on sofa and his attention to them was as if he had known them his entire life. He gave them twice the time allocated, which had been 15 minutes. He never rushed them. They talked about their families. The President tried to lighten the mood by speaking about how he met Laura and asked how Bill met Adie. It was the most personable meeting you could image. No invasion of their privacy. This was a very comforting, relaxing atmosphere, which was really special.

I asked the grieving father from Pennsylvania about the grieving mother from California who is now camped out in Texas.

"My heart goes out to her, especially when I see what my wife goes through. You live with this every day. The first year you still think that door is going to open and your son is going to walk through it. She deserves the right to say what she wants to say, thank God you can do that in this country, but do I believe in what she says, no I don't."

"When the President said our son, or any other son would not die in vain, that made me feel real good, because I certainly don't want this thing to end up the way Vietnam did, with American vs. American, and I felt really good he made that statement. The man sticks to his word."

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