Obama, Bush: Dueling Events
(WASHINGTON) The Obama campaign was taken by surprise this morning after the White House announced President Bush's late-added press conference. Bush's event was slated to begin just 25 minutes before Obama was to deliver what was being touted as a "comprehensive" foreign policy address ahead.
Senior campaign aides initially said the speech would not be moved and that Obama would take the stage at 10:45am. But when the campaign realized that all three cable networks planned to air the Bush press conference live, they panicked and pushed Obama's speech back.
The Bush press conference ended at 11:11am, and only seconds later, Amb. Joseph Gildenhorn began his introduction at the Obama event. But as the crowd clapped for Obama and Lee Hamilton, who was also slated to speak before Obama, a cautious Hamilton warned Obama that the crowd could be a bit anxious.
Hamilton says to Obama: "They're glad to have you here, they're probably a little anxious, they've been sitting here an hour."
Obama: "You might want to mention that we didn't want to step on the President's program.
Hamilton: "Should I mention that?"
Just seconds later, Hamilton greeted the crowd, "Good morning to all of you and thank you for coming, the reason we are late beginning is because the President of the United State was having a press conference and we didn't want to step on his message so we started a few minutes late."