I hadn’t planned on commenting on the press conference last night since nearly everything that could be said has already been said be people more skilled than I. Check out Glenn Reynold’s rundown.
President Bush’s performance at last night’s press conference was adequate but lackluster. That he has had only twelve of them since becoming president doesn’t surprise me. I suspect that it’s something like my wife’s explanation for why she doesn’t want to go dancing: “I don’t engage in failure-oriented activities.”
What did impress me was the palpable disdain the press had for the President and the clear sense that they were gunning for a useable sound-bite. As my auld mither said “You’d think they’d have respect for the cloth, if not the man.”
I guess this is what you can expect in a post-Watergate world in which every kid in J-school dreams of being another Woodward or Bernstein and building a career on bringing down a president. I think this explains the tenacity of the press in going after Bill Clinton after initial resistance to the Monica-gate story. And the “have you stopped beating your wife”-type questions the press perseverated on last night.
