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Bush Jogs With Wounded Veterans
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ShareJuly 25, 2007 6:17 PM
ABC News' Jennifer Duck reports: President Bush jogged with two injured veterans that he met visiting Walter Reed last year on a track at the south lawn of the White House.
The run -- which the White House allowed the media to cover -- came after Bush heard recommendations from the special commission appointed to examine the care veterans received after coming home from the war. Bush appointed the commission following revelations of poor treatment and conditions facing wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush ran with Specialist Max Ramsey, who lost his left leg last year while serving in Iraq, and Sgt Neil Duncan, a double-amputee, who was injured in Afghanistan in 2005.
As the three men jogged up to waiting TV news cameras, President Bush accidentally forgot one of the men's name, saying, "I've been running with Max and Allen."
Neil quickly reminded the President of his name. "I mean Neil," said Bush.
"Neil lost both legs, and he told me he's going to run with me on the South Lawn of the White House. Max lost his leg, and he told me he was going to be jumping out of airplanes with the 101st Airborne. Sure enough, he's jumping out of airplanes with the 101st Airborne, and along with Neil, he's running on the south lawn," Bush said.
Bush called the men inspirational.
"Running with these two men is incredibly inspirational for me. And it should be inspirational to anybody who has been dealt a tough hand. Sometimes in life you get dealt a hand that you didn't expect to play, and they got dealt a tough hand, and they're playing it with all their soul," he said.
It seemed at one point the two servicemen, who wear metal artificial legs, were outrunning the President. Bush said, "Don't ask him why he outran me," and then answered, "because he's a faster runner."
Standing next to the President after the jog, Sgt Duncan said he felt "fantastic."
"It's an accomplishment. It's like the pinnacle of recovery," Duncan said.
After the run, Bush stood by the veterans and commented on the special commission's report.
"The spirit of that report is, any time we have somebody hurt, they deserve the best possible care, and their family needs strong support," Bush said, admitting, "we've provided that in many cases, but to the extent we haven't, we're going to adjust."
Bush called on Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Veteran's Affairs Jim Nicholson to implement the special commission's recommendations.
July 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (6)
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OMG! He flubbed a name! Quick, impeach this man who cares nothing about our troops! He's just pretending that self-centered oil hungry evil vermin! Send him to the front lines!
-- This reactionary joke brought to you by the Democratic party.
Posted by: Stoic Patriot | Jul 25, 2007 6:47:21 PM
Let's see. Bush does NOTHING to help veterans for six years, then poses for photo ops and starts to funnel some money to help them...in his last year in office. Big surprise. Got that "legacy thing" and those poll numbers to prop up. Wouldn't want to be remembered as a dismal failure and worst president ever...now would we?
Posted by: wilder5121 | Jul 25, 2007 7:08:19 PM
Idiot, must be nice to job w/ the two legs you were born with! I dislike him even more...poser!
Posted by: Missy | Jul 26, 2007 3:22:43 AM
Seriously? This is ridiculous. Maybe its time to give all of your major media counterparts (which you read as enemies) such as Limbaugh, Hannity, Medved, etc. a call about what is going on here. I used to give you the benefit of the doubt when those guys would comment on the bias but now that I have experienced it myself...you would not believe how disappointed and disgusted I am.
Posted by: America-THE-Beautiful | Jul 27, 2007 12:21:39 PM
I visited one of those two men while they were at Walter Reed and can comment on the great care they got. Now, to see the two of them running with the President is an inspiration to us all. Sure, the health care system needs to be improved, but, if Congress will allow it, President Bush will see that it happens.
Posted by: Patriot | Jul 29, 2007 8:16:32 AM
ABC,
I think it would be really great if you stopped deleting my comments. There was nothing about them that was vulgar our out of line. It is really hard for me to understand your motives for the deletions assuming that everyone is open minded and can make decisions for themselves. I wish we could celebrate these two men and others like them instead of downgrade the situation with comments such as the second and third.
Patriot,
Great comment. I couldn't agree more.
Posted by: America-THE-Beautiful | Jul 30, 2007 9:04:17 AM
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