"to get me to negotiate with myself in public," te he

[rodeodance]

summary of newsprint Bush news conference:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2111279/

Everyone leads with what little news could be wrung from President Bush's 53-minute presser yesterday morning, in which he gave an uncharacteristically frank assessment of the situation in Iraq, a characteristically upbeat assessment of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and sidestepped many other questions.


The papers' news conference lead stories are pretty much interchangeable, down to the use of the word "sober" to describe Bush's Iraq comments. Everyone notes his shocker admission that progress there is "mixed" when it comes to training Iraqi troops. "They've got some generals in place and they've got foot soldiers in place, but the whole command structure necessary to have a viable military is not in place," Bush said. "No one can predict every turn in the months ahead, and I certainly don't expect the process to be trouble-free. Yet I'm confident of the result. I'm confident the terrorists will fail, the elections will go forward."

But, as everyone notes, Bush at least temporarily halted the Rumsfall, declaring his strong support for the SecDef and defending his general goodness. "You know, sometimes perhaps his demeanor is rough and gruff, but beneath that rough and gruff, no-nonsense demeanor is a good human being who cares deeply about the military and deeply about the grief that war causes." (Rummy, for his part, defends himself in a USAT op-ed.)

The best account of the conference comes inside the WP, from Dana Milbank, who focuses on Bush's amusing rationale for refusing to answer substantive questions about his proposal to privatize Social Security. "Now the temptation is going to be ... as we run up to the issue, to get me to negotiate with myself in public," Bush explained. And when the LAT's Ed Chen later tried to get some details by pointing out that Bush had already, ahem, negotiated with himself by ruling out benefit cuts for retirees and near retirees, Bush was unmoved. "Yeah, well, that's going to fall in the negotiating-with-myself category," he said.

Milbank also notices an interesting trend: This marks two news conferences for Bush in as many months. Is he finally warming to the task?

[atommom]

1. If his performances continue to be this incoherent, Karl will have to

put him into lockdown mode again! Can't make the sheeple suspicious about the state of GW's mind.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

2. I knew ...

...that GW flip flopped on the "negotiate with myself" thingy several times, you would think it was somehow imprinted upon him with a serious scolding by someone prior to the press conference. Is this his psycho analyst speaking?

[rodeodance]

3. they did not do a brain scan during his recent physical!!--maybe it

is not there?

[AValdoux]

4. Press Conference Schedule

Look at what time they are being held. During the work day so most people just read summaries and clips of what happened. Don't expect any primetime conferences. To watch him for 53 minutes trying not to negotiaiting with himself would be very damaging.

AValdoux

[Not_Giving_Up]

5. I noticed this as well

We're all trying to catch what we can from the web or be fed from those at home. Of course, people do get upset if he interrupts prime time TV to not negotiate with himself. Hmmm...maybe after dark he transforms into something else? I have no idea what though!

[Skittles]

6. LOL.......AValdoux

hilarious! :thumbsup: