President Bush's European trip has started with a bang. According to Yahoo! News, President Bush today collided with a security officer while both were riding bikes at Gleneagles golf resort.
Bush suffered "mild to moderate" scrapes on his hands and arms that required bandages by the White House physician, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. The accident occurred on asphalt, McClellan said. It was raining lightly at the time, and Bush was wearing a helmet.
Police said the officer suffered a "very minor" ankle injury.
There is also word that the "presidential bike" was damaged enough that Bush accepted a ride back to the hotel from the Secret Service.
For some reason, this bike accident put me in mind of another collision between a politician and a member of a security detail. In fact, if memory serves, it was darling-of-the-left himself, John Kerry, who hit a secret service agent while "snowboarding" in Idaho. The reason I remember this is because Kerry's reaction made national news.
Dem presidential candidate John Kerry called his secret service agent a "son of a bitch" after the agent inadvertently moved into his path during a ski mishap in Idaho, sending Kerry falling into the snow.
When asked a moment later about the incident by a reporter on the ski run, Kerry said sharply, "I don't fall down," the "son of a b*itch knocked me over."
For the record, Kerry was reported to have fallen roughly a half-dozen times with no help from his security detail. Yet another untruth from Kerry. But I digress...
The reason I bring this up after so many months after the fact and with the 2004 election mercifully behind us forever, is because President Bush's reaction to hitting the security officer was in such contrast to Kerry's.
The president talked with the officer to make sure he was all right, and also asked White House physician Richard Tubb to monitor the officer's condition at the hospital.
This is a perfect example of at least one reason I voted for him twice. The man has class enough to be concerned with an officer's health, rather than being concerned only with how the fall might make him look on TV. Perhaps his gracious manner is due to the fact that he actually gets out of the house once in a while...
A year ago, Bush was cut and bruised when he sailed over the handlebars while riding a mountain bike at his Texas ranch.
In 2003, he tried out a Segway, the standup, motorized scooter at the family's seaside estate in Maine. It went down on his first attempt, but he stayed on his feet with a flying leap over the machine. Undeterred, he got on again and cruised around the driveway with his father.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to note an absolute conviction that, were a regular guy like me ever get to hang out with the Prez, it would be very akin to hanging out with just another regular guy. I'll bet I could even get him out on the ice for some hockey.
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