Who's the guy from ground zero?
Will the "guy" from ground zero please identify himself?
President Bush, who has had some difficulty with his recollection, used to finish almost every speech about his moment on Sept. 14, 2001, atop the rubble of the twin towers.
In February of this year, as the Web site Salon documented, Bush remembered "a guy pointing at me and saying, 'Don't let me down.' " In May, the figure became "a guy in a hard hat" and then "the firefighter." In June, he became an ensemble of "tired firefighters and police and rescue workers," who said, collectively, "Don't let us down." In July, it was "a fireman or a policeman, I can't remember which one, looking me in the eyes."
In August, Bush said the fellow was "looking through the rubble for one of his buddies." The "buddy" morphed into "a loved one" and "somebody that he worked with," then back into a "buddy." By September, Bush had dropped the buddy but developed new recollections about the guy. "I remember a guy grabbed me by the arm, a big old burly firefighter, I guess he was a firefighter. He said: 'Do not let me down.' "