The Press Conference (Updated)
Roger L Simon blog
I think Bush did very well and helped himself with this press conference. Most of all, he comes off as sincere and passionately committed--and I think on the War on Terror he is. He makes the "Bush Lied--Bush is Hitler" crowd seem like the fringe (at least in this country) nitwits that they are. This man believes in his mission. Either the voters will or they won't. That is another matter. (I suspect, in the end, that they will, but that's just my hunch of the moment.) I also think he should give more press conferences because, although he certainly does not have the verbal skill of a Clinton, he does not seem as if he is trying to gull anyone either. Against the media, which is populated with people desperate to stand out from the crowd to make themselves known, he automatically looks good. In any case, come Fall, this may prove to be one of the most interesting elections ever, because the American public will definitely have a decision to make.
UPDATE: The big story last night was the disgraceful performance of the press corps. John Podhoretz catches it best:
The president achieved his purpose. The press corps did not achieve its purpose. He would not fall into their astonishingly blatant trap. He simply refused to offer a satisfactory answer to four - four! - different questions demanding that he either enumerate or apologize for his failures.
Of course, as journalism this is no more than buffoonery. When I started blogging, one of my points (yes, I made it too often) was that politics in our society had turned into sports. Now it's turned into bad sports like stupendously dumb high school athletes endlessly bashing each other with lacrosse sticks. We end up with normally intelligent people like Susan Estrich screeching on television last night the Bush keeps insisting we're in a war. What does she think is going on? Color War?
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