blog report

Ready for Prime Time

April 13, 2004

George Bush’s third prime-time press conference, scheduled for this evening, sent bloggers racing to their keyboards.

Describing the president’s decision to meet the media as “news that shouldn’t be news,” Amy Sullivan envisions a polite give-and-take, courtesy of some hand-picked stand-ins.

Hesiod at Counterspin posted his own list of questions for the president, and even suggested the menu for a Memorial Day picnic/visit to troops in Iraq.

Matthew Yglesias also is seeking questions from his readers, saying Bush is due for some “serious scrutiny” from the media. Like Sullivan, however, he’s not optimistic that the gloves will come off. As a reminder, he reprints an explanation from Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times about the tribulations of covering the president in troubled times.

Speaking of taking off the gloves, Mickey Kaus goes bare-knuckled against Adam Nagourney. Praising the campaign coverage of Nagourney’s competitor, the Los Angeles Times’ Ron Brownstein, Kaus writes: “Nagourney’s important because of his position. Brownstein’s important because he’s good.”

And, finally with a note of civility, Tim Graham of National Review‘s “The Corner” finds a delicious irony in MoveOn’s decision to hold a nationwide bake sale for the Kerry campaign.

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–Susan Q. Stranahan

Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.