Respect

How do they let you get away with the stuff you pull at your (precious few) press conferences, Bush? I mean, I'm serious now. I'm really pissed. I think I've been really considerate myself until this moment, but now's the time for a little honesty between us. Like yesterday. I watched your press conference for about a half hour and was astounded at the simplifications, at times, yes, the blathering incoherence that came out of your mouth. Sorry, Bush. It's truth-telling time.

This wasn't just a matter of not answering questions--though you did seem to find a way around most of them. It wasn't just the awful, unfunny jokes--at which the press laughed anyway, dutifully, awed, perhaps, by your ability to condescend to human level. No, it was the simplistic, uninformed content of what you had to say. It was the language, Bush, the terrible clichés, the endless repetitions, the solipsisms, the apparent incomprehension of the questions, the reduction of complex issues to simple-minded pablum. It was the tone--a mixture of whining defensiveness and aggressive condescension. It was the snickering little laugh with which you sought to convey your judgment that your questioner was either naïve, or ignorant, or stupid, or all three.

I'm sorry, honestly, Bush. But this is how I heard it.

And my anger is not so much directed at you as at the gutless press. Is no one out there in medialand ready to tell the simple truth: that this was a dismal intellectual performance, from the man who so readily claims leadership of the free world? That, yes, we people out here have the right to expect thoughtful and intelligent responses to thoughtful and intelligent questions from journalists, and not simply the re-mouthings of a few canned responses, clearly prepped for you before the session began? Nothing spontaneously argued out, nothing directly from a thinking mind, registering the subtleties and specifics of the question and responding in kind. I saw a man struggling to remember precooked words and phrases. Are the media so damn respectful that they don't dare to come back with tough follow-ups (or are they not permitted?) Nor to comment forthrightly and critically on what they've heard? Have they buried their critical faculties in a dung-heap of respect for the "office of the president."

Come on, somebody say something! For God's sake, is there no one to tell us in all honesty what the emperor was wearing at his press conference yesterday...