Ari Fleischer gave insight on the 2000 Presidential Campaign and the early years of the Bush Administration at a C-SPAN video conference for college students.
The video conference is a collaborative effort between C-SPAN, the Cable Center, Pace University, the University of Denver, and George Mason University. The conference gave a forum for college students to ask questions to political news makers.
One of the most eye opening experiences were the President George W. Bush (R-TX) Campaign struggle in 2000 for the Republican Nomination against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
Fleischer claimed that they were, “shellacked by John McCain”, because he is a retail politician.
He added, “Because of [McCain’s] maverick ways, we did not expect to lose that badly. NH is a maverick state.”
Natalie Bedell, a senior communications major, said that, “Fleischer was making a lot of excuses for Bush, it was very repetitive.”
Fleischer, being the Press Secretary during 9/11, gave an in depth testimony of the day of events and his experiences being with the President at Booker Elementary School in Florida.
“Our presumption was a freak accident,” said Fleischer. “Never at that moment did we think it was terrorism.”
At that moment when he described his experience, for a moment, the room remember when “terrorism” was not a common word or the first thought.
His profound thoughts have personalized what we know as “George W. Bush” and more importantly as we know it, the change to the “New America” on 9/11.
You can review an edited version of the Video Conference on C-SPAN 3 on Fridays at 5PM.
