Bush Press Conference on Iraq Benchmarks

This morning, President Bush held a news conference that ran about an hour. He started out with a heartfelt statement on the death of Ladybird Johnson.

Before taking questions, he discussed the war in Iraq and the benchmark report, areas of progress and lack of progress.

The focus of the news conference can be summed in three words --- IRAQ, IRAQ, IRAQ.


Some observations:

---Someone should hold a retirement party for Helen Thomas.

---The press was especially hostile and combative. The first four questions were phrased in a condescending, "Why can't you understand?" manner. I stopped counting after that.

---Was this a news conference with members of the press or a meeting with the Michael Moore fan club?

---Martha Raddatz is a major league whiner, asking Bush to speculate on what David Petraeus' assessment of the situation in Iraq will be.

---Cheerleading for the Dems, Jim Axelrod of CBS asked if Bush was concerned that Congress would take away some of his powers as Commander in Chief by passing legislation. He didn't seem to realize that he was talking about Congress overstepping its powers granted under the Constitution.

---The shameless David Gregory referenced a Washington Post column that called Bush stubborn. In a follow-up, Gregory asked if Bush thinks he's being realistic. What a stupid question!

---Shrill Sheryl Stolberg of The New York Times interrupted Bush while he was in the middle of a sentence. Very inappropriate.

---Mike Abramowitz of The Washington Post was the first and only person to bring up Scooter Libby. He asked about the "morality" of someone in Bush's administration leaking the name of a covert CIA agent. It wasn't a question. It was a sermon.

---Wendell Goler of FOX asked about troop levels. Bush said that the generals all told him they had what they needed.

---Bush is as committed as ever to protecting the homeland and defeating terrorists and tyrants that wish to do us harm. He didn't seem embattled or beaten.

---Mark Silva of The Chicago Tribune asked what Bush's gut is telling him, referencing Michael Chertoff's remark about his gut feeling that a terrorist attack in the U.S. is near. Bush responded by saying that his gut tells him al Qaeda wants to hit us again. Silva's self-serving question gave Bush the opportunity to speak quite eloquently on freedom and the hope for peace in the Middle East.

---Ed Chen of Bloomberg News asked, "How hard is it for you to conduct the war without popular support?" He basically accused Bush of undermining the "essence of Democracy." Bush responded with poise and class.

---Breaking with form, after Bush ended the news conference and was walking out of the room when he actually returned to the podium to respond to a question yelled out by Martha Raddatz. Bush said that al Qaeda is NOT as strong as it was prior to 9/11. They are still a serious threat, but they are weaker today than they were in 2001.

---It doesn't bother me at all when people disagree, and disagree strongly, with President Bush. It bothers me greatly when they paint him as heartless and clueless.

---President Bush is a patient, principled, decent man.

________________________

Transcript