President Bush falls off Segway

[Joe Ross]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/...0612_1989.html

[Brandon Martus]

bahahah. I think I'll keep my mouth shut.

[AJ Quick]

So is the older H Bush smarter than the W Bush? Afterall, he didn't fall off..

[Amanda Morrison]

...I'm surprised that he managed to get ON the Segway.

Here's the NBC coverage, too.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/926145.asp?0cv=CB20

[Kyle]

This is what was on AOL NEWS:

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (June 13) - President Bush opened a long weekend of golf and fishing Friday by hooking his first drive into a riverbank. He found his stroke on his second try, cheered by his father, who proclaimed it a ''good ball!''

Father and son left their family's coastal compound just after dawn, taking a mini-motorcade to nearby Cape Arundel Golf Club, where they have been golfing for years. The first President Bush drove their golf cart up to the first tee, the current president riding shotgun with his feet up on the dash. ''Good morning, everybody!'' he said to a group of reporters.

The father-son pair took a couple of warm-up drives, neither pleased with the results. ''Reload,'' George H.W. Bush mumbled after his first drive. His son's first shot followed a hard arc to the left into the mud along the Kennebunk River. The second shot was long and straight. They were joined by club pro Ken Raynor and by Mark Plummer, a multiple winner of Maine's amateur championship.

Two Bush siblings, Dorothy Koch and Marvin Bush, played separately, and the family converged at the 18th hole after an unusually long round by Bush standards - more than two hours. President Bush tried to use body English to ease his last putt into the hole, but it didn't work.

Their scores weren't known, but the elder Bush said ''It's not all about winning'' as he walked off the last green.

Three generations of Bushes were spending Father's Day weekend at Walker's Point, the family's estate here along Atlantic coastline.

It won't all be rest and relaxation. Bush gets regular daily briefings on pressing matters whenever he spends his time away from the White House. This weekend, salvaging Mideast peace looms large. But Bush ignored a reporter's question about that.

The emphasis was decidedly on unwinding here during a weekend in which the family was celebrating the 79th birthday of the first President Bush.

Arriving at the family's oceanside estate, the younger Bush quickly shed the suit and tie for casual wear, grabbed a tennis racket and whacked an orange ball for dog Spot to fetch. The president was still clutching the racket when he boarded a Segway, a standup, motorized scooter that resembles a push lawnmower.

The Segway went down on Bush's first attempt, but he stayed on his feet with a flying leap over the machine. Undeterred, he got on again. His father climbed on a second Segway and they cruised around the driveway at the estate at Walker's Point.

The president's twins, Jenna and Barbara, and former first lady Barbara Bush all took turns on the Segways. Earlier Thursday, first lady Laura Bush, the twins and the former president took a cruise in a white powerboat.

The stay in Kennebunkport was only the most recent long weekend of relaxation Bush has taken since the Iraq war. He has had three long weekends at his Crawford, Texas, ranch since mid-April.

AP-NY-06-13-03 0931EDT

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

[Marc P.]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...170/4dmvj.html

There's the actual fall.

[WakeZero]

Poor Dean, I bet the Secret Service is going to be all over him

[Kyle]

heres the pic that was on AOL news: i had to put it into paint so sorry about the poor quality.

[MattK]

The segway is only as smart or in this case dumb as the operator.

[Kyle]

hehehehe look hes runnign from it ,secret service must have been about shoot it or something.

[Scott England]

Now I never got to ride a segway as yet, but can someone who has, please tell me just how difficult is it to tip over a segway? I'm just impressed that our president managed to crash the "magic pair of sneakers"

[Andy A.]

I have ridden one for about a minute. I can say that when you first step on, you have no frame of refrence for how sensitive it is. You wobble for a bit, then you find your balence after a few seconds. I never felt like I would tip over, I just scooted back and forth.

Now, to get on and tip it over? That seems like a feat, if felt to me like you would have to run into it and use all your weight to get it to tip like that.

Maybe he just didn't have it turned on.

-Andy A.

[Jon K.]

Chances are it wasn't on. Because if it were on then he wouldn't have had to lean it back to get on it like was shown it would have just been standing upright. But that is our President for you.

[MattK]

maybe it was on, I think what he was doing is pushing his leg out (you can see his leg is flexed) and he is pulling back the handle bars trying to get on.

When you pull the handle bars back on a segway the machine stays upright and moves back.

I think than he was shot forward, and than pushed the machine to the point where it shuts off beacuse of to steep of angle

[D.Fahringer]

It looks turned off to me. The wheels of the Segway never move at all in relation to the closest static reference which seems to be the rock wall. The dark rock slightly tipped at an angle is a good guide to show no movement of the Segway.

Looks like he just grabbed it and jumped on and the handlebar swung right over because it was off.

Could it be that tipping one of these back that far before you try to get on causes it to be shut down?

That is not my definition of a fall..a hand or knee has to touch!


What is the black thing at the right wheel in frame one that appears near left wheel in frame two and three and is gone in frame four?