He did not need to bring Ronald Reagan into this debate. I am not a fan of Ronald Reagan and I am aware of the fact that he armed and trained the Taliban and most likely Al Queda. However, it would have been better to negate the facts presented by the Fox News host(s). First, most of the American people were not talking about Osama Bin Laden, but some in the media and many in the intelligence community were talking about Osama Bin Laden. When President Clinton left office there was a debate as to whether he had focused too much time trying to kill Osama Bin Laden. Also, President Clinton launched missiles in an attempt to kill Bin Laden. An official from the outgoing Clinton Administration claimed he tried to warn members of the Bush Administration that they needed to focus on Bin Laden. Condoleezza Rice claimed to not have remembered being given that information.
Second, Bush had been in office nine months. That means Bush had been in office for more than 270 days. He could have launched a number of attacks against both the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden during that time. In addition, either just before the election, or just before Bush took office there was a terrorist attack against the U.S. Navy ship USS Cole, which killed and wounded multiple sailors. It was known that the Taliban had been behind the attack on the USS Cole, but the Bush Administration did nothing but review a situation that had already been reviewed.
Third, during President Bush's 270+ days in office he was informed that there was a chance that a terrorist attack could/would be launched in the United States. He was told that the possible targets for the attack were The World Trade Center, The Pentagon, The White House, and the U.S. Capitol. He was told there was a chance that the terrorist would fly airplanes into those buildings.
Finally, more than a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush was told that "Osama Bin Laden was determined to attack inside the United States". It has been reported that President Bush's response to that information was to tell the then CIA Director something along the lines of, You have covered you butt, now go home. The moment President Bush was given that information he could have either ordered the U.S. military to launch attacks against Osama Bin Laden, or he (Bush) could have returned to Washington, D.C. and spent the month of August trying to find and kill Bin Laden.
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