More on Bush's press conference yesterday:

Two critical reviews over at the Washington Post are worth reading - Eugene Robinson's President on Another Planet, and Dan Froomkin's President on a Mission. And check out David Corn's observations in The Nation:

Bush ... said:

The strategy is to help the Iraqi people achieve their objectives and their dreams, which is a democratic society. That's the strategy.

Actually, that's not a strategy. That's a goal. A commander in chief should know the difference.

Of interest was this line from Bush: (emp add)

... imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction ...

When you're talking about "a" weapon of mass destruction that poses a threat, you're not talking chemical or biological. You're referring to the "mushroom cloud" machine - a nuclear weapon.

Shortly after that line, Bush said this: (emp add)

...the main reason we went into Iraq at the time was we thought he had weapons of mass destruction. It turns out he didn't, but he had the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction.

So, we're back to the ur-scare, that Saddam could assemble a nuclear weapon and hand it over to the terrorists. Is anybody buying that fiction anymore?

Yesterday Bush demonstrated more clearly than ever, his lack of understanding of what's happening in Iraq and his utter reliance on Karen Hughes style bromides ("freedom agenda").


Of note: Froomkin writes

Bush held forth in a press conference called with less than two hours' notice this morning.

The White House announced Bush's 10 a.m. press conference at 8:13 a.m. The timing was ideal if the goal was to have the press corps at a disadvantage. Most reporters -- and newsrooms -- are not even remotely functional that early on Monday mornings.

And it was quite the surprise. The White House's 8 a.m. morning update to reporters stated that Bush had "no public events."

Why does manly-man Bush constantly hold these surprise press conferences in the morning? What ever happened to a days-notified-in-advance, prime-time press conference, like the kind Reagan or Clinton had? Bush sure comes off as a chicken when he plays "pop-in".


posted by Quiddity at 8/22/2006 08:22:00 AM