Rodent Regatta

Two people saw different press conferences last evening. First, someone who saw nothing but the negative said this:

Tonight’s press conference was pretty bad. At one point I thought maybe Bush should just resign and go be President of Iraq. He seems to have lost track of his job, which is President of the country I live in, the country I just paid taxes to, the country whose young people are dying to save a country that did not attack us on Sept 11 and one that clearly does not want our help. Watching him fumble tonight, I realized this is Mr Joe Average thrust into a situation way over his head, as if that wasn’t bad enough, he started a war that has no end. Shame on the Republicans for nominating this guy in 2000. He can’t complete a sentence. He talked about a chicken farm in Libya (twice!). The Republicans still have the power to fix it, get a new candidate for the November election, and start the withdrawal from Iraq now. It’s a disaster. This guy is drowning, and that’s bad.

Dave Winer

Then, there are some other points of view. Here’s how one of them saw the press conference:

Bush said that there’s no safe alternative to resolute action, and stressed that the terrorists fear democracy and freedom in the Arab world.

Overall, a pretty good opening speech—though he probably should have given it weeks ago. The first question was a ”quagmire” question. ”How do you answer the Vietnam question?”

I think Bush handled that pretty well, and he looked confident and quick on his feet (for Bush). More importantly, he seemed sincere, and determined (”tough” was an oft-repeated word), while admitting problems. And he stayed on message.

How will it play? I don’t know how many people watched it, but I think it will reassure a lot of people who haven’t paid a lot of attention day to day, and who wanted evidence that Bush is serious, has a plan, and is on top of things. Lots of talk about cooperation, to deflect claims of unilateralism. He was pretty good, and I wonder why he doesn’t do this more often. Ultimately, though, the issue isn’t the communication, but the way things work out. It’s not the talk, but the results.

Glenn Reynolds

You’ll find excerpts from and links to a lot of the other opinions in the summary that Glenn Reynolds put together.