Taking his cue from conspiracy filmmaker Michael Moore, John Kerry attacked President Bush this week for not reacting quickly enough when he got word of the 9/11 attacks during a visit to Sarasota, Fla.'s Emma E. Booker elementary school.
Booker school principal Gwendolyn Tose-Rigell says, however, that Bush did just the right thing by staying put and continuing to read to her children. And she says the president's performance that day made her want to vote for him, even though she's a Democrat.
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"I don't think anyone could have handled it better," Tose-Rigell recently told the Sarasota Herald Tribune. "What would it have served if he had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?"
She recalled the scene at 9:05 a.m. on Sept. 11, two minutes after the second plane hit Tower 2, when White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card squeezed past her to alert the president.
The Booker school principal didn't hear what Card said, but told the Tribune: "I knew it was something serious. The president bit his lip and clenched his jaw. I didn't know what happened, whether it was something with his wife or children or something with the nation."
"I remember praying that God would watch over our school and protect our children," she added.
Tose-Rigell didn't vote for Bush, but said that after watching the way he handled himself in her classroom while under incredible pressure, "That day I would have voted for him."
"I've heard people say, 'Why didn't you get the children out of there?' Where were they supposed to go? Many of their parents weren't home. Some didn't have rides. It would have created chaos."
Principal Tose-Rigell concluded, "There is nothing anyone can tell me to change my perspective, because I was there."
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"CATASTROPHE" Reveals the Secret Story Behind 9/11
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George W. Bush
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