Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Easy to see why he doesn't have more press conferences (n/t)

re: The press conference

Not my words... found at one of the writers' sites I frequent, and quoted in full by permission of the author, John Kenney:

Let's see. How many direct questions did Bush deflect, or not answer in his news conference today?

Top 10 unanswered questions:

1) Do you think mistakes were made?

2) Would you ever admit to making a mistake?

3) Do you feel you should apologize to the nation for 9/11 like Richard Clark did?

4) After coming up wrong on Iraqi response to occupation, the cost of the war, the number of troops needed, WMD, would people be wrong in assuming your information is bad?

5) Why are you and Dick Cheney insisting on appearing together before the 9-11 committee, instead of seperately, as the committee had requested?

(Bush got unexpectedly peeved at this question, and blew it off rudely, twice)

6) Who will Iraq be handed to on June 30?

7) How do you answer suspicions that your coalition in Iraq is a sham?

8) What was your biggest mistake post 9-11? "I'm sure something will pop in my head" Nothing did, and he changed the topic.

9) Will you institute "intelligence reform" of the agencies? If so, how?

10) Your speeches always say the same, contain the same phrases, and always sound upbeat. Do you think maybe you fail as a communicator of ideas?

At this point, the end of the conference, Bush was visibly rattled. He, in a shaky voice, repeated a lot of the same phrases he always uses.

This was only Bush's 3rd prime time news conference, in close to 4 years, significant in itself.

As far as I can tell, not a single question received an answer. Not one! Just more of what the reporter who asked #10 was alluding to.

Here's what we learned:

Terrorists are very evil. They want to kill us.
Freedom is very good, and Iraq should have it.
It's a hard job.
I didn't like 9-11. Hated it. Made me sick.
We're doing the right thing.
We will stay the course.
Osama Bin Laden is a very evil man.
Saddam Hussein was also very evil, it's good that he's gone.
Most Iraqis like us, they just don't like occupation.
I'm supposed to get good information!
I can't think of a mistake I made.
We love freedom. I love freedom. Terrorists hate it.
We must always fight terrorists. We will win.
You flustered me with that question.

Not a lot of information from the captain of this ship in a crisis-filled month.

It'll be awfully hard for a spinner to paint this conference in a good light.

And I used to be tolerant of this guy.


[source: John Kenney, posted at "Scrawl, The Writers' Asylum" (a password-protected site, thus no link provided)]

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (20 posts)