The Press Conference
Believe it or not, I completely forgot about it. D’oh.
Plenty of bloggy coverage out there:
- Glenn Reynolds is bemused that WaPo had a summary of it beforehand
- Kevin Drum simulblogged and has mixed reviews
- Spoons missed part of it but had mixed reviews
- Blackfive thought Bush “didn’t do so well” and repeated his talking points too often
- Laurence Simon thought Bush was refreshingly candid
- Michael Demmons thinks Bush dodged every question
- Michele Catalano is impressed that Bush stood tough against an asinine series of questions
- Jeff Jarvis thinks Bush should have invited more bloggers
- Steven Taylor though the president did well but needed a haircut
- Rooftop Report hated Bush’s tie
WaPo has a transcript.
Remember Taylor’s Axiom on this one, though: It’s not the performance, it’s the sound bites. I’m very seldom impressed with a Bush press conference or speech even though I like him; the sound bytes almost always come out better than the “live” version. And it’s the sound bytes that get remembered.
Update: Robert Prather offers, “If he held more of these press conferences he would be better at them.”
Say what you will about the blogosphere… But you can’t say there is a lack of diversity.
I tried real-time commentary, and the definitive results are back: my real-time commentary sucks.
In all honesty, I don’t really believe that he dodged all the questions. I mean, most of the questions were the same. I just wish he had answered them better.
I would like him to have said: “Ahmmm…does anyone have a question for me that doesn’t imply that I directly ordered the attacks on the WTC?”
While I do think he dodges questions, I also think it was because he was getting fed up with the same thing over and over again. He just should have called the press on it, in my opinion. It was obvious, to me anyway, that they were all looking to trip him up anyway.
I live-blogged it here. Please include it in your list of links?
I did great. He was passionate, reassuring, direct, believable. I like this guy. I want him to finish his job killing our enemies. Bush is a good guy. He’s one of us.