By Jackson Thoreau
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two days before the Saddam story was released just in time to make the Sunday morning talk shows and dominate this week's news coverage, George W. Bush did something unusual for him - he took six "impromptu" questions from the press after a short announcement of his nomination for the new HUD secretary.
Big mistake.
In his first three years, Bush's handlers have let him take media questions on his own fewer times than any president in modern history. At the same point in their terms, Bush Sr., Clinton, LBJ, Carter, and Ford had faced the press more than 40 times. Reagan and Nixon had staged solo news conferences more than 20 times. Bush Jr. has done so nine times.
Nine times.
And for those conferences, Bush Jr. was provided with a list of possible questions by aides, given a few hours to rehearse his answers, and taken into an official, dress rehearsal, with staff members pretending to be reporters and firing questions at him. It
