The bulk of the Blog World undoubtedly is sleeping in this morning, having been up so late last night venting, er, composing. If the president’s press conference stirred up nothing else, it did serve to get those creative juices flowing.
We’ll start off our morning roundup with the calm assessments of Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard, who opens with an aside about Bush: “[Y]ou could see why he drives the press crazy.” Barnes devotes equal parts of his wrap-up to the President’s remarks and the conduct of the media.
“If one was expecting a Kissingerian strategic case for America’s intervention in Iraq,” wrote Barnes, “one wasn’t going to get it from Bush. His argument was simple. Freedom in Iraq is good for Iraqis, good, for America, and good for the world.”
Barnes then weighs in on the questioning. “By my count, reporters got in 15 questions. I categorize them this way: six were seeking information, three were gotcha, three were accusations, one was obscure, one stupid, one showboating.”
Mark Kleiman couldn’t help but tinker with the President’s opening remarks, making some edits of his own, eschewing “snarky comments” (but hoping that other bloggers would feel free to weigh in — which they did).
Ezra Klein’s reaction at Pandagon wasn’t snarky, just angry. Klein writes that he needed a time-out before sitting down at his keyboard. “For me, Bush’s performance crystallized my belief that this Administration doesn’t respect the American people,” wrote Klein. “Tonight was a shell game, the political equivalent of Plato’s Cave where Bush told us his answers were real responses and his statements of intent an actual discussion.”
Over at Counterspin Central, Hesiod Theogny confided “tonight was the first time I have truly been afraid. Yes … afraid for our country.”
“I’ve joked about how ‘incompetent’ I thought George W. Bush was. But I’ve always dosed it with a healthy bit of respect for him as a political opponent. Namely, I thought he was shrewd, dishonest, conniving, etc.,” Theogny writes. “Tonight, though … I’m not so sure. He looked absolutely clueless. He looked like he had no way out of the problems we are facing in Iraq, and is just trying to play out the string until the election.”
And at Daily Kos, blogger DHinMi takes a populist tack: “Common Americans don’t trust people who can’t think of a single mistake in over three years on the job. Common Americans don’t like people who don’t answer questions. And common Americans don’t like people who blame all their failures on other people.”
But the thing that set off a real buzz in the Blog World was George Bush’s choice of cravats. “Who vetted the tie?” asks Demosthenes. “Fish markets don’t have herringbones like that!” That well-known fashion plate Wonkette chimes in: “How can we trust people to run the country if they can’t dress for television?
On a somewhat different topic, Campaign Desk yesterday noted Mickey Kaus’ acid critique of Adam Nagourney of The New York Times. Kaus continues the pounding today, crediting Nagourney with finding a “solution to a problem that has plagued American journalism.” We’ll let you discover it for yourself.
–Susan Q. Stranahan
Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.