Is Dubya Playing Catch-up? Of course he is; the question is can he do it? He'd best hope most Americans were not watching his press conference--his obvious disdain for the press corps before him, the by now patented twisted mouth scowl, and cork-screw head tilt, spoke loudly about how much he believes in the public's right to know about what is NOT in that unthinking brain of his. Has there ever been a president that displays as much undisguised arrogance? The man is a public relations disaster for anyone trying to portray the "American way" to a very doubting world.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 — Early on Tuesday morning, as many Americans were scanning newspaper headlines about the latest wave of deadly bombings in Iraq, President Bush met with his press secretary and his communications director in the Oval Office. He told them, aides said, that he wanted to hold a full-scale news conference a few hours later.
The idea had been under consideration for several weeks, but it was only after the attacks in Baghdad on Monday that Mr. Bush decided to take his message directly to the voters and the world.
For weeks, while opinion polls showed diminished support for his postwar leadership, he had accused the press of filtering out good news from Iraq and overplaying the bad.
The decision reflects how urgent it is for the White House to keep public opinion about Iraq from deteriorating to the point that it could limit the president's policy choices and threaten his chances for re-election.
