What You Won't Hear In The Media

by DemFromCT

You won't hear much about Bush calling a press conference and defending the indefensible... Tom DeLay, Josh Bolton, Social Security... out of weakness, although print media (as always) does a better job than cable.

NBC's WH reporter, David Gregory, did note that Bush made passing reference to compassion and reasonableness by forgiving his political enemies the sin of being anti-religion for opposing his judges. But as the NY Times notes, he could do just about anything and be forgiven by the religious right, so why not tell the truth just this once? More to the point, even bad press will always be 'balanced' with  how 'strong' the President is, even when he's 'wrong':

Mr. Bush said several times that he would listen to good ideas from either party, would seek solutions regardless of partisan advantage. But he also made it clear that his fundamental conviction about how he conducts his presidency has not changed, and he defended Mr. Bolton's reputation for bluntness by saying, "Sometimes people say I'm a little too blunt."

It would be foolish to count out anyone so determined.

"Among the things the president has going for him is that he's still the president," said former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.

The president's last prime-time news conference was just over a year ago, when violence in Iraq seemed to be spiraling out of control and some nervous voices in his own party were urging him to be more aggressive in the face of the coming Democratic challenge from Senator John Kerry. His performance drew decidedly mixed reviews, but he conceded no error and gave no ground.

And in the election seven months later, he had the last laugh.

We're almost used to it by now, but it's wearing very thin even by the hacks that have to write this crap (and the editors that insist on putting it in). The obligitory kow-tows are actually being inserted into otherwise uncomplimentary reviews; one of the kindest is that this press conference was better than his worst (maybe because it was shorter... can't let the country's problems get in the way of ratings sweeps). But as George Stephanopalous noted on ABC World News when asked whether this will help the President jump-start his Social Security plan (citing the well known WaPo poll numbers) the answer is no.

Comments

[James]

I couldn't bear to watch the press conference or read any of the whoring in the media, so your post was extremely helpful.

You can always count on NYT for some good laughs. Or bowel movements.