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04/14/2004 Archived Entry: "The reviews are coming in...."
The reviews are coming in...
And I'm glad that the print media is not playing the same game as the cable nets. From the Chicago Trib:
In Iraq, a painful daily drip of bad news has been coming for weeks--horrific photos, escalating body counts and scenes of mob rule. At home, a commission examining the failures of the administration's law enforcement and intelligence functions before the Sept. 11 attacks so far has yielded few stories of success.Controlling the violent insurgency, or even the staid commission, are matters beyond the reach of President Bush, a chief executive with a penchant for internal administration discipline.
So Tuesday night he turned to a forum over which he had far greater control, a prime time East Room news conference, an event that typically proves beneficial for the holder of the Oval Office.
But the president who spoke repeatedly about being on a war footing hardly seemed sure-footed, even on questions that could scarcely be seen as overly aggressive.
Bush used his requested television time for a 17-minute opening statement--lengthy by his standards--designed to reframe the debate over the war with Iraq and regain political high ground on what could be a defining issue in the November election. It was almost as if he were trying to cloak an address to the nation in the coating of a news conference.
His scripted remarks had a certain force that his question-and-answer session lacked.
Asked, for instance, whether he felt any personal responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush demurred, instead saying had he any "inkling" of the attack, he would have "moved heaven and earth" to prevent it. Asked whether he might offer an apology to Sept. 11 victims, Bush said that the person "responsible for the attacks was Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)." Asked to name his biggest mistake since Sept. 11, 2001, Bush said he would leave that to historians.
"He wanted to run as a war president and he may wish he didn't have to," said James Davis, a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis.
Replies: 2 people speak up
I watched Pres. Bush's press conferece last evening. I was never so proud to be an American. Of course that warm, fuzzy sense of pride might be attributed to the copious amount of wine I consumed.
I find that the consumption of great quantities of alcoholic beverages makes Bush so much more palatable.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 04/14/2004 12:39 PM NY
I just can't watch him any more -- there ain't enough wine in the world....
Posted by Jesse @ 04/14/2004 05:06 PM NY
