local6.com - News - Sarasota Principal Defends Bush From 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Portrayal

local6.com - News - Sarasota Principal Defends Bush From 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Portrayal: "SARASOTA, Fla. -- Michael Moore's film 'Fahrenheit 9/11' criticizes President Bush for listening to Sarasota second-graders read a story for nearly seven minutes after learning the nation was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
But Gwendolyn Tose'-Rigell, the principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, says Bush handled himself properly.
'I don't think anyone could have handled it better,' Tose'-Rigell told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in a story published Wednesday. 'What would it have served if he had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?'
'Fahrenheit 9/11,' which won the top honor at last month's Cannes Film Festival, portrays the White House as asleep at the wheel before the Sept. 11 attacks. Moore accuses Bush of fanning fears of future terrorism to win public support for the Iraq war.

Tose'-Rigell said she plans to publish her account of the morning of Sept. 11 from pages she wrote in her journal following the attack. The principal said she didn't vote for Bush. "But that day I would have voted for him."

Associated Press