Bush to the rescue

Everything in Due Time

By Rick Horowitz

The carping contingent is back in full cry. You'd think they might have taken a break; a few days off wouldn't have hurt them after a year as nasty as 2004 was. Besides, nothing ever happens between Christmas and New Year's Day, right? Nothing that really matters, anyway.

But no: They're out there complaining, and even poking fun. And all because George Bush didn't react to the great tsunami disaster as quickly as they thought he should. They weren't on vacation, but he was -- and he stayed that way.

When the giant waves crashed onto the shores of South Asia, the president was safe and sound on the presidential ranch near Crawford, Texas. It was days before he emerged from his holiday cocoon to make his first comments to the world. In the meantime, his people told reporters, he rode his bicycle. He cleared brush.

"How callous!" the carpers say.

Play to your strengths -- that what I say.

George Bush is one of this country's greatest exercise presidents. Maybe the greatest ever. It's hard enough for the leader of the free world (not to mention the guiding light for the coalition of the willing) to find time to hit the bike and burn off those extra calories. Do you really want him to disrupt his entire workout schedule just because there's some enormous natural disaster happening halfway around the world?

(Brush is something else again. I don't get brush. The president goes on vacation, the president clears brush. The president goes on another vacation, the president clears some more brush. He's the President of the United States -- his real-estate agent couldn't have found him a ranch that was brushless? His personnel director couldn't have hired a couple of guys with rakes? Or even better: Forget the guys with rakes -- put the president's Interior Department in charge of the place, and they'll have it clear-cut by lunchtime.)

(It's Ronald Reagan's fault, you know. Presidents and brush, I mean. Ronald Reagan used to spend vacations clearing brush at his ranch, and he looked so outdoorsy, so manly. So now all the Gipper wannabes from Dubya on down need a ranch of their own, and an eight-year supply of brush to go with it. It certainly beats spending time with the briefing books.)

Where were we?

Here's where: "Do you really want him to disrupt his entire workout schedule just because there's some enormous natural disaster happening halfway around the world?"

It's not as if George Bush could have saved any of those people by getting off his bike. It's not as if he could have called Dick Cheney on speed-dial and let Cheney tell the Air Force to tell our pilots to try to shoot something down. The damage was already done, right? So what was the rush? One day, two days, three days, four days -- what difference did it make? Anyway, would you have wanted him standing there that first day talking about how terrible it was that 10,000 innocent people died, when he'd just have had to come back again the second day and say, "Sorry, I meant 20,000" and then 30,000 and 40,000 and 70,000 and --

It could have been embarrassing.

Here's the other thing: By waiting as long as he did, the president had the chance to see how the world would react to our first offer of $15 million in relief aid. And when the reaction was what it was -- disappointed, dismayed, appalled -- he was able to go right out there and throw some slightly bigger numbers around, and make sure everybody understood that this was only the start of our help. Being flexible like that -- that's the way to win friends, don't you think?

And one more thing: By waiting as long as he did, the president was able to find just the right words to show that, no matter what the rest of the world may think of us, America is a land filled with sympathy and compassion.

"I know that our fellow citizens are particularly troubled to learn that many of the deaths were young children," the president said, "and we grieve for their families, their moms and dads who are just, you know, heartsick..."

Could anyone have said it any better?

So lay off. These things take, you know, time.

Posted 12/30/04. Hit the new year at full speed -- get prize-winning commentary right here at "Rick's"!

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker.

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