Cindy Sheehan is protesting President Bush and his handling of the Iraqi war right outside his ranch in Crawford, Texas. She said she is going to stay through all of August if she's doesn't have a chance to meet with Bush.Sheehans' soon Casey was killed last year in Iraq.
This from the The New York Times:
Seeking to head off exactly the situation that now seems to be unfolding, the administration sent two senior officials out from the ranch on Saturday afternoon to meet with her. But Ms. Sheehan said after talking to the officials - Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and Joe Hagin, a deputy White House chief of staff - that she would not back down in her demand to see the president.
Her success in drawing so much attention to her message - and leaving the White House in a face-off with an opponent who had to be treated very gently even as she aggressively attacked the president and his policies - seemed to stem from the confluence of several forces.
The deaths last week of 20 Marines from a single battalion has focused public attention on the unremitting pace of casualties in Iraq, providing her an opening to deliver her message that no more lives should be given to the war. At the same time, polls that show falling approval for Mr. Bush's handling of the war have left him open to challenge in a way that he was not when the nation appeared to be more strongly behind him.
It did not hurt her cause that she staged her protest, which she said was more or less spontaneous, at the doorstep of the White House press corps, which spends each August in Crawford with little to do, minimal access to Mr. Bush and his aides, and an eagerness for any new story.
Ms. Sheehan's story is certainly compelling. She is also articulate, aggressive in delivering her message and has information that most White House reporters have not heard before: how Mr. Bush handles himself when he meets behind closed doors with the families of soldiers killed in Iraq.
The White House has released few details of such sessions, which Mr. Bush holds regularly as he travels the country, but generally portrays them as emotional and an opportunity for the president to share the grief of the families. In Ms. Sheehan's telling, though, Mr. Bush did not know her son's name when she and her family met with him in June 2004 at Fort Lewis. Mr. Bush, she said, acted as if he were at a party and behaved disrespectfully toward her by referring to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting.
By Ms. Sheehan's account, Mr. Bush said to her that he could not imagine losing a loved one like an aunt or uncle or cousin. Ms. Sheehan said she broke in and told Mr. Bush that Casey was her son, and that she thought he could imagine what it would be like since he has two daughters and that he should think about what it would be like sending them off to war.
"I said, 'Trust me, you don't want to go there'," Ms. Sheehan said, recounting her exchange with the president. "He said, 'You're right, I don't.' I said, 'Well, thanks for putting me there.' "
GOI: Ms. Sheehan is one courageous woman and the longer the President refuses to meet with her the worse the situation will become for him. If he was a true "compassionate conservative" he would go out to meet her and talk to her face to face. That would win him some much needed points with the American public.
Instead???
There is apparently talk that she will be arrested on Thursday because Condi and Field Marshal Von Rumsfeld are coming to the ranch for a "policy meeting."
What a jackass.
He doesn't even have the time to meet with a woman who lost her son to his farce of a war. He is the President and therefore represents ALL Americans and of ALL Americans, the mother of a dead American soldier should have the right to meet with him everyday if she wants. Not only is he the worst President in American history he is now becoming one of the coldest hearted Presidents in history.
Check out Cindy's website for more details.
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3 comments:
Mr. Bush said to her that he could not imagine losing a loved one like an aunt or uncle or cousin.
That's really fascinating. In almost every account I've read, the young GWB lost a sister to whom he was very close. I wonder what kind of psychological damage that man has to say something like this and not make any kind of personal connection.
In response to your comment about GWB's sister's death: I'm told that his parents, GB Sr. and Barbara, handled this poorly, that they were extremely emotionally remote, did not tell GWB (8 yrs old I think) what was happening, that his sister was going to die, prepare him for it, let him see her, let him attend the funeral, or discuss it afterward in any way.
So many people do think Bush was damaged by this. And who wouldn't be damaged by parents who would handle his emotional needs in this way, which is not at all, and so must have given him zip in the way of other emotional support during his childhood.
A damaged, narcissistic avoider is what he grew up to be. Someone not versed in the geography of his own heart, perhaps.
prsfone:
Yeah I heard about that incident and such a thing would certainly screw a person up a bit.
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