WASHINGTON – A few years ago, when some photos by New York Times photographers adorning our office walls were swapped out for others, I found one headed for the dumpster.
It captured the scene when Andy Card came over to whisper to George W. Bush, as he read “The Pet Goat” to schoolchildren in Sarasota, Florida, that a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
It was such a pivotal moment in this country’s history, it seemed too important to toss. So I hung it in my office.
But then three days later, I had to get rid of it. The look in Bush’s eyes was so disturbing, I couldn’t bear to see it anymore.
He looked frightened, like a horrible bill had come due and he was utterly unprepared to pay it. He looked like what he was: a man who had been winging it for the first half of his life, playing and swaggering around while he relied on his daddy and daddy’s friends to prop him up.