The press conference

Questions from the reporters' gallery last night were loaded, but Bush handled them pretty well.  Actually, he handled them very well, starting with the first one.  Right out of the box he gets, "are you frustrated?"

Q Mr. President, a majority of Americans disapprove of your handling of Social Security, rising gas prices and the economy. Are you frustrated by that and by the fact that you're having trouble gaining traction on your agenda in a Republican-controlled Congress?

THE PRESIDENT: Look, we're asking people to do things that haven't been done for 20 years. We haven't addressed the Social Security problem since 1983. We haven't had an energy strategy in our country for decades. And so I'm not surprised that some are balking at doing hard work. But I have a duty as the President to define problems facing our nation and to call upon people to act. And we're just really getting started in the process...

After that effort to draw out some presidential whining fell flat, the next thing was the inevitable question about his standing in some poll somewhere.

Q Is the poll troubling?

THE PRESIDENT: Polls? You know, if a President tries to govern based upon polls, you're kind of like a dog chasing your tail. I don't think you can make good, sound decisions based upon polls. And I don't think the American people want a President who relies upon polls and focus groups to make decisions for the American people.

Bush reply translated:  "Do I look like Bill Clinton?"  Moving on, we find the press in yet another desperate bid to wrest defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq.

Q Your top military officer, General Richard Myers, says the Iraqi insurgency is as strong now as it was a year ago. Why is that the case? And why haven't we been more successful in limiting the violence?

THE PRESIDENT: I think he went on to say we're winning, if I recall.

Not once did Bush back down, make an evasive answer, or indicate in any way that he was open to compromise on his goals. Here we glimpse a reporter's hope that Bush will give up on the idea of providing voluntary personal accounts with Social Security.

Q Getting back to Social Security for a moment, sir, would you consider it a success if Congress were to pass a piece of legislation that dealt with the long-term solvency problem, but did not include personal accounts?

THE PRESIDENT: I feel strongly that there needs to be voluntary personal savings accounts as a part of the Social Security system. I mean, it's got to be a part of a comprehensive package. The reason I feel strongly about that is that we've got a lot of debt out there, a lot of unfunded liabilities, and our workers need to be able to earn a better rate of return on our money to help deal with that debt.

Secondly, I like the idea of giving someone ownership. I mean, why should ownership be confined only to rich people? Why should people not be allowed to own and manage their own assets who aren't the, you know, the so-called investor class? I think everybody ought to be given that right. As a matter of fact, Congress felt so strongly that people ought to be able to own and manage their own accounts, they set one up for themselves... 

Meanwhile, the loyal opposition at the Washington Post, in a wild flight of the imagination, were doing their best to portray this as a risky move, one that may end with Bush in a lame duck presidency.  Here are Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei in an article entitled A Gambler Decides to Raise the Stakes.

President Bush made a huge gamble last night in a bid to restore momentum to his flagging proposal to restructure Social Security -- and to his presidency.

With two in three Americans disapproving of the way Bush has handled Social Security, many political observers thought it would be prudent for Bush to cut his losses and negotiate a bipartisan compromise on Social Security, perhaps without the personal accounts he has promoted for the past several months.

Instead, Bush held a prime-time news conference and doubled down on his bet. He continued to press for private accounts while adding a proposal that would cut Social Security spending by $3 trillion over 75 years -- openly defying the longtime belief that proposing cuts in the beloved program is bad politics.

Talk about wishful thinking.  I'm going to make a prediction.  Judging from the tone of this press conference I'd say some moderate feet are going to be held to the fire over the next couple of weeks.  It ought to be real interesting.

Comments

[Raven]

I thought President Bush was awesome the other night during that press conference. He was in control and he showed it. I also thought the media was a bit taken aback by this. LOL

[Tom Bowler]

The media are perpetually taken aback by Bush. Isn't it funny to watch.

[Raven]

Bush was great. He gave it right back to those idiot reporters...with a smile. Classy.

[Scott]

I was disappointed to see VandeHei's name attached to that piece in the WaPo. He's one of the best and most fair-minded reporters on staff. Hopefully he wasn't the primary writer.

[Scott]

Wrong writer...the good one is David von Drehle.