To: jlallen who wrote (541040 ) 1/6/2010 8:20:37 PM From: RetiredNow Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1576884 I fail to see the parallel between the shoe bomber and panty bomber? What is the issue? I don't believe there is an issue. However, the GOP is trying to make hay out of a non issue, by saying Obama is soft on terrorism because of the underwear bomber. It's all pretty silly.President Obama takes the heat President Bush did not politico.com Eight years ago, a terrorist bomber’s attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner was thwarted by a group of passengers, an incident that revealed some gaping holes in airline security just a few months after the attacks of Sept. 11. But it was six days before President George W. Bush, then on vacation, made any public remarks about the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, and there were virtually no complaints from the press or any opposition Democrats that his response was sluggish or inadequate... But the similarities between last Friday’s incident and the attempted shoe bombing in 2001 are striking. This year’s attack came on Christmas. The attempt eight years ago took place on Dec. 22. Obama was on vacation in Hawaii when the suspect, Omar Abdulmutallab, allegedly used plastic explosives in his try to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight. Bush was at Camp David when Reid used similar plastic explosives to try to blow up his Paris-to-Miami flight, which diverted to Boston after the incident. Like the Obama White House, the Bush White House told reporters the president had been briefed on the incident and was following it closely. While the Obama White House issued a background statement through a senior administration official calling the incident an “attempted terrorist attack” on the same day it took place, the early official statements from Bush aides did not make the same explicit statement. Bush did not address reporters about the Reid episode until December 28, after he had traveled from Camp David to his ranch in Texas.