The Choreographed Presidency

[Nbadan]

Is there anything W does that is spontaneous or does everything have to be carefully choreographed?


The president engaged in a carefully choreographed question-and-answer session with 10 American servicemen and women and one Iraqi soldier, whom he saw on a large video screen set up in a room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House.

“Do the Iraqis want to fight, and are they capable of fighting?” he asked. He was told they were.

“The Iraqi army and police services, along with coalition support, have conducted many and multiple exercises and rehearsals,” Capt. Stephen Pratt of Pocatello, Idaho, told Bush. “Along with the coalition backing them, we’ll have a very successful and effective referendum vote.”

....

Prepped to answer

Before it began, a Pentagon official coached the troops, telling them the president planned to ask questions on three topics: The overall security in Iraq, how they were preparing for the vote on Saturday and how much progress had been made in the training of Iraqi troops.

Allison Barber, a Pentagon official, said Bush would ask them specifically, “In the last 10 months, what kind of progress have we seen?”

She asked who was prepared to answer the question. “Master Sgt. Lombardo,” one said.

After Bush asked just that question, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo responded: “Over the past 10 months, the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces are improving ... They continue to develop and grow into a sustainable force.”

MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9686462)

What was that? What a train wreck.

The troops asking questions to W couldn't have been more on cue.

[Marcus Bryant]

A politician in a staged photo-op? That's shocking.

[Spam]

It helps Bush limit his smirks and blinking.

[Clandestino]

you can't have some asshole looking for fame say something stupid he was coached into before the interview like that dude did to rummy..

[JohnnyMarzetti]

you can't have some asshole looking for fame say something stupid he was coached into before the interview like that dude did to rummy..

Don't be so hard on Dubya. :lol

[Marcus Bryant]

W is an asshole.

[Dos]

slow newsday for liberals...

[bigzak25]

Our President is doing a job none of us could handle. I applaud him and his Spirit.

Good to know iraqi forces are growing in strength and skill, but I agree, Bush should be very very very well informed on Everything going on in Iraq and on our Borders here at home.

National Security here and abroad are top priorities, followed by programs to help those that cannot help themselves, i.e. elderly, children, and special needs adults.

as you were...

[Murphy]

this is not the first time a president has done something like this, it is not illegal, and, the soldiers didn't say no to do it, so get over it election loser

[xrayzebra]

And then you have: Oh, I forgot, the news media has a free pass.


'Today' Reporter Paddles in Shallow Water
Oct 14 5:25 PM US/Eastern
Email this story

NEW YORK


If Michelle Kosinski's canoe had sprung a leak on NBC's "Today" show Friday, she didn't have much to worry about.

In one of television's inadvertently funny moments, the NBC News correspondent was paddling in a canoe during a live report about flooding in Wayne, N.J. While she talked, two men walked between her and the camera _ making it apparent that the water where she was floating was barely ankle-deep.

Matt Lauer struggled to keep a straight face, joking about the "holy men" who were walking on water.

"Have you run aground yet?" Katie Couric asked.

"Why walk when you can ride?" Kosinski replied.

Later, an NBC News spokeswoman explained that Kosinski had been riding in deeper water near an overflowing river down the street, but there were concerns that the current was too strong for her.

"It's not like we were trying to pass it off as something it wasn't," spokeswoman Lauren Kapp said.
================================================== =============Ah, yes Ms. Katie Couric, wasn't she the one talking about Mr. Bush staging an event.

[boutons]

"National Security here and abroad are top priorities"

the US ports remain wide open. Iraq had NOTHING to do with national security, Saddam/Iraq were pinned down and enfeebled after Gulf War, while al-Qaida is STILL running around.

"help those that cannot help themselves"

ha! the "tax-cut and spend" Repubs are using their record deficit as justification for cutting Medicaid, support for the poor, elderly, kids, scholarhips, etc, etc. while leaving Repub pork and the tax-cuts for the rich and corps and corporate welfare completely untouched.

[xrayzebra]

"National Security here and abroad are top priorities"

the US ports remain wide open. Iraq had NOTHING to do with national security, Saddam/Iraq were pinned down and enfeebled after Gulf War, while al-Qaida is STILL running around.

"help those that cannot help themselves"

ha! the "tax-cut and spend" Repubs are using their record deficit as justification for cutting Medicaid, support for the poor, elderly, kids, scholarhips, etc, etc. while leaving Repub pork and the tax-cuts for the rich and corps and corporate welfare completely untouched.

No federal program has been cut in my lifetime, just the rate spending slowed down, but how the hell would you know. You would have a problem pouring water out of a boot, if it had the instructions on the heel.

[boutons]

"this is not the first time a president has done something like this, it is not illegal"

but it's so fake as to be totally dishonest, ie, typical, repeated Repub tactic.

NOBODY intelligent believes these intelligence-insulting charades. I see you suck it as Gospel truth.

getting a bunch of field grade officers to suck off dubya-in-chief in public? GMAFB
They ought a have more pride that be compromised in one of dubya's dog-and-pony shows.

=======================

washingtonpost.com

Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

By DEB RIECHMANN
The Associated Press

Friday, October 14, 2005; 1:49 AM

WASHINGTON -- It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.

"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."

Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote and efforts to train Iraqi troops.

As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit _ the birthplace of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.

A brief rehearsal ensued.

"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"

"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.

"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.

"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.

And so it went.

"If the question comes up about partnering _ how often do we train with the Iraqi military _ who does he go to?" Barber asked.

"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.

"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit _ the hometown _ and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.

Before he took questions, Bush thanked the soldiers for serving and reassured them that the U.S. would not pull out of Iraq until the mission was complete.

"So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total victory," Bush said.

The president told them twice that the American people were behind them.

"You've got tremendous support here at home," Bush said.

Less than 40 percent in an AP-Ipsos poll taken in October said they approved of the way Bush was handling Iraq. Just over half of the public now say the Iraq war was a mistake.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday's event was coordinated with the Defense Department but that the troops were expressing their own thoughts. With satellite feeds, coordination often is needed to overcome technological challenges, such as delays, he said.

"I think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them know what to expect," he said, adding that the president wanted to talk with troops on the ground who have firsthand knowledge about the situation.

The soldiers all gave Bush an upbeat view of the situation.

The president also got praise from the Iraqi soldier who was part of the chat.

"Thank you very much for everything," he gushed. "I like you."

On preparations for the vote, 1st Lt. Gregg Murphy of Tennessee said: "Sir, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make this thing a success. ... Back in January, when we were preparing for that election, we had to lead the way. We set up the coordination, we made the plan. We're really happy to see, during the preparation for this one, sir, they're doing everything."

On the training of Iraqi security forces, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo from Scotia, N.Y., said to Bush: "I can tell you over the past 10 months, we've seen a tremendous increase in the capabilities and the confidences of our Iraqi security force partners. ... Over the next month, we anticipate seeing at least one-third of those Iraqi forces conducting independent operations."

Lombardo told the president that she was in New York City on Nov. 11, 2001, when Bush attended an event recognizing soldiers for their recovery and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. She said the troops began the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were proud to continue it in Iraq.

"I thought you looked familiar," Bush said, and then joked: "I probably look familiar to you, too."

Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.

"If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said. "He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."

© 2005 The Associated Press

=====================

P U K E !!

[Uncle Donnie]

Pentagon Denies Talk With Troops Was Staged

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,172262,00.html

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials are denying that a live video conference between President Bush (search) and U.S. troops in Iraq was staged.

"On behalf of these fine young men and women, we certainly regret any perception that they were told what to say. It is not the case," said Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita.

A live feed of troops from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division and an Iraqi soldier was beamed into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington from Tikrit Thursday to discuss the situation in Iraq with the president.

But some critics said the video conference was staged, referring to an on-camera shot of a Pentagon official shown coaching the soldiers.

"The soldiers were advised as to the issues they should expect to discuss, and decided among themselves who would speak to each issue as it may arise," Di Rita maintained.

The event posed technological challenges, which required preparations such as advisements to soldiers on which subjects they could expect to be asked about, Di Rita said.

Some senior Pentagon officials told FOX News that they are angry that soldiers were coached at all before the video conference went live.

The White House defended the video conference on Thursday, saying that the soldiers were expressing their own thoughts.

"I think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them know what to expect," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, adding that the president wanted to talk with troops on the ground who have firsthand knowledge about the situation.

The questions pitched to the troops by Bush were choreographed on the president's goals for the war in Iraq and the upcoming vote this weekend on a new Iraqi constitution.

Privately, at least one senior military commander told FOX News that he's outraged by the way the young soldiers were coached.

Others pointed out that despite efforts behind closed doors at the Pentagon to spin what happened, the tape of the event tells the story of soldiers who were being 'scripted' and given answers that had been 'drilled through' — in the words used by Deputy Secretary of Defense for Internal Communications Allison Barber on a tape that captured her 45-minute practice run of the event.

Barber told the soldiers on camera shots before the video conference went live that the president was interested in three topics, including the overall security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the vote and training for Iraqi troops.

"This is an important time," Barber said to the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."

Barber continued to talk to the troops before the event went live.

"I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.

Then Barber took the troops through a brief rehearsal.

"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"

"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.

"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.

"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.

And so it went.

"If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?" Barber asked.

"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.

"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit — the hometown — and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.

Bush opened the video conference thanking the troops for their service and vowed to stay in Iraq until the mission was complete.

"So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total victory," Bush said.

Bush received positive feedback about the situation in Iraq from the troops.

An Iraqi soldier told the president "thank you very much for everything," adding that "I like you."

On preparations for the vote, 1st Lt. Gregg Murphy of Tennessee said: "Sir, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make this thing a success. ... Back in January, when we were preparing for that election, we had to lead the way. We set up the coordination, we made the plan. We're really happy to see, during the preparation for this one, sir, they're doing everything."

On the training of Iraqi security forces, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo from Scotia, N.Y., said to Bush: "I can tell you over the past 10 months, we've seen a tremendous increase in the capabilities and the confidences of our Iraqi security force partners. ... Over the next month, we anticipate seeing at least one-third of those Iraqi forces conducting independent operations."

Lombardo told the president that she was in New York City on Nov. 11, 2001, when Bush attended an event recognizing soldiers for their recovery and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. She said the troops began the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were proud to continue it in Iraq.

"I thought you looked familiar," Bush said, and then joked: "I probably look familiar to you, too."

Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.

"If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said. "He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."

[Nbadan]

A politician in a staged photo-op? That's shocking.

Yeah, all of Clinton's Town-hall meetings were staged.

:rolleyes

[Nbadan]

Scotty's heated Press Conference

Scotty went after Helen Thomas hard at the briefing today and he was peppered with questions about the Photo-op with the troops as well.

As Josh notes: In this morning's gaggle, Scott McClellan got asked whether the teleconference the president had with troops in Tikrit was scripted. Here's what he said ...

QUESTION: How were they selected, and are their comments to the president pre-screened, any questions or anything...

MCCLELLAN: No.

QUESTION: Not at all?

MCCLELLAN: This is a back-and-forth.

Here's how the pool report (i.e., from the designated reporter on the scene) described what happened.

The soldiers, nine U.S. men and one U.S. woman, plus an Iraqi, had been tipped off in advance about the questions in the highly scripted event. Allison Barber, deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense for internal communication, could be heard asking one soldier before the start of the event, "Who are we going to give that to?" Oh well ...Thanks Josh!

Crooks and Liars (http://www.crooksandliars.com/)

:lmao

What a dumbass!

[Nbadan]

AP: Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged
Posted by deminks
Added to homepage Thu Oct 13th 2005, 05:20 PM ET


WASHINGTON - It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.

As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit — the birthplace of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.

"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"

"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.

"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.

"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.

And so it went.

More: Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq_8)

[boutons]

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/jd/2005/jd051014.gif

[Marcus Bryant]

Yeah, all of Clinton's Town-hall meetings were staged.

:rolleyes

:lol

[Marcus Bryant]

There's nothing more hilarious than a partisan nutjob cartoon.

[Nbadan]

A Flack in the flock...

http://www.crooksandliars.com/images/2005/10/14/bush-press-conf-Flack.jpg


The Village Voice is reporting that a public affairs officer was part of the group of soldiers that President Bush talked to. Her name is Corine Lombardo who works for the military as spokesperson to the media.

Village Voice: The videoconference his handlers set up with U.S. soldiers in Iraq was staged, as the AP's Deb Reichmann just pointed out. But here's another part of the flack attack you may not know: The soldier on the left side of the front row was actually a flack herself, though she didn't reveal it during the regime's 24-minute infomercial....read on"

Lombardo probably sees more action watching CNN on TV than any real action.

[boutons]

MB, glad you haven't lost your sense of humor. Enjoy the cartoons, they nearly always have kernel of truth, even the anti-left ones (but those are mostly lies, like most of the spew from the right).

The dubya-with-Captain-Suck-Ups charade is just another lie, like all the reasons for the Iraq war. The Repubs get out of bed in the morning thinking "what lies do we tell today?" Telling the truth never even crosses their minds.

===================================

washingtonpost.com

Caught on Tape

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, October 14, 2005; 3:00 PM

White House spokesman Scott McClellan repeatedly insisted that the troops participating in a videoconference from Iraq with President Bush yesterday morning hadn't been coached.

But the satellite feed of painstaking rehearsals led by a senior Pentagon official said otherwise.

And as a result, television journalists for once had a field day exposing the sleight of hand to which they are more often accessories.

Up until now, the degree to which most Bush events are meticulously choreographed has not been a great story for TV. That's because the elaborate preparations -- the stage-setting, the screening and prepping of participants, and any number of steps to ensure that nothing remotely like dissent intrudes upon the president -- all typically happen behind the curtain.

In fact, TV tends to lap up precisely the kind of stirring, spotless imagery the White House normally cranks out for public consumption.

But yesterday, all that changed when an errant satellite feed fell in their laps.

Suddenly, instead of covering a highly artificial and largely newsless event the normal way -- broadcasting the desired images, playing the hoary sound bites and making it seem like something new was said -- pretty much everyone today led with the artifice.

On TV

It was extraordinary.

Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell turned four full minutes at the top of "NBC Nightly News" into a report on the imbroglio -- and a discourse on the staged nature of so many White House events. (If the Williams/Mitchell link isn't working, Kelly O'Donnell used some of the same video this morning on the Today Show.)

Here's Williams:

"It was billed as a chance for the president to hear directly from the troops in Iraq. The White House called it a 'back and forth,' a 'give and take,' and so reporters who cover the White House were summoned this morning to witness a live video link between the commander in chief and the U.S. soldiers in the field, as the elections approach in Iraq.

"The problem was, before the event was broadcast live on cable TV, the satellite picture from Iraq was being beamed back to television newsrooms here in the U.S. It showed a full-blown rehearsal of the president's questions, in advance, along with the soldiers' answers and coaching from the administration.

"While we should quickly point out this was hardly the first staged political event we have covered -- and we've seen a lot of them in the past -- today's encounter was billed as spontaneous. Instead, it appeared to follow a script."

Williams then turned things over to Mitchell, who showed a brief clip of deputy assistant defense secretary Allison Barber coaching the troops:

"If he gives us a question that is not something that we have scripted, Captain Kennedy, you are going to have that mike and that's your chance to impress us all. Master Sergeant Lombardo, when you are talking about the president coming to see you in New York, take a little breath before that so you can be talking directly to him. You got a real message there, ok?"

Says Mitchell, showing video of Bush on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln: "This isn't the first time the administration used troops to help sell the Iraq war.

"In fact, the Bush White House has choreographed everything from town hall meetings on Social Security to campaign events with planted questions. Many administrations, Democrat and Republican, stage-manage events. Often the news media ignore the choreography."

But the satellite feed, Mitchell concluded, offered "a rare look behind the curtain of a White House trying to sell an increasingly unpopular war."

Here's Terry Moran on ABC last night: "Well, as you know, this is a White House that's prided itself on expert stage managing and polished events of Mr. Bush's public appearances. Today, we got a glimpse behind the scenes.

"It was billed as a simple, straightforward back and forth conversation, a video teleconference between the president and a group of soldiers in Iraq. . . . But those questions, it turns out, came as no surprise to the soldiers. . . .

"Before the president appeared, Allison Barber, a senior Pentagon official, prepped the troops thoroughly, and in a rare White House slip-up, was caught on camera."

Lara Logan reported on the "CBS Evening News" that Bush's message "was overshadowed by questions about how much staging went into the event."

And even Fox News was in high dudgeon.

Here's Shepard Smith: "At least one senior military official tells Fox News that he is livid over the handling of U.S. troops in Iraq before their talk by satellite live with the president. . . .

"As the White House tries to prop up support for an increasingly unpopular war, today -- to hear it from military brass -- it used soldiers as props on stage.

"One commander tells Fox it was scripted and rehearsed -- the troops were told what to say to the president and how to say it. And that, says another senior officer today, is outrageous.

"It's certainly not the first time a photo op has been staged for the president -- far from it -- but it's the first time we know of that such a staging has touched off such anger."

On comes Carl Cameron: "First, the White House and the Pentagon claimed it was not rehearsed. But for 45 minutes before the event, the hand-picked soldiers practiced their answers with the Pentagon official from D.C. who, in her own words, drilled them on the president's likely questions and their, quote, scripted responses.

"There are folks here at the White House now walking around shaking their heads about how badly it appears to have gone."

On CNN this morning, Miles O'Brien amused himself by apparently reading from a transcript of what Barber said during the rehearsal.

"Here's the part I like," he said. " 'OK, so let's work on that answer a little bit, Captain Kennedy. Why don't you work on -- "We're working with the Iraqi soldiers and to my right is Master Sergeant." ' And then a little later, she says, 'You know, a few smiles wouldn't hurt back here on the TV.' A few smiles."

But it's doubtful that anyone has had as much fun with this story as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who under the rubric "White House follies" last night paired what he called "the president's choreographed satellite back-slapping session with the troops" with "the press secretary's knee-capping session with the White House press corps."

"It's like watching the Jesse Ventura show," he said after showing extensive clips of the troop rehearsal, and the ensuing event.

Olbermann asked Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank to explain what happened.

"It really is inexplicable," Milbank said. "This was a White House that did everything right, in terms of imagery, and now they just seem to have completely lost their mojo on fairly simple things. . . .

"It is tempting to say that none of this would have happened if Karl Rove were still alive, but that is oversimplifying. . . .

"I think what you are seeing here is a White House now sitting at 38 percent in the polls, and it has never been there before, and there's a bit of a panic setting in. They don't really know how to get out of this. They have always operated being out in front before and they don't know how to run it from behind."

The NewsBusters blog has a transcript of much of Olbermann's show.
On the Radio

David Greene of NPR offers listeners four and a half minutes of audio from the rehearsal. He explains: "While it's common to use a trial run to ensure things go smoothly when the president arrives, the event, recorded by NPR, offered some insights into the meticulous nature of advance work."
In the Papers

Thomas M. DeFrank and Corky Siemaszko write in the New York Daily News: "President Bush's supposedly unscripted Q&A session with the troops in Iraq yesterday was unmasked as a sham when a Pentagon official was caught coaching the soldiers Bush was going to question. . . .

"The White House is notorious for stage-managing Bush's events, notably the town hall meetings where prepicked participants ask Bush carefully screened questions. But it's rare that Bush's handlers get caught doing it so brazenly."

Jim VandeHei, writing in The Washington Post, describes it as "one of the stranger and most awkwardly staged publicity events of the Bush presidency. . . .

"Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) was not impressed. 'The American people and our brave troops deserve better than a photo-op for the president and a pep rally about Iraq,' he said. 'They deserve a plan. Unfortunately, today's event only served to highlight the fact that the president refuses to engage in a frank conversation about the realities on the ground.' . . .

"After a day of White House damage control, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence T. Di Rita put out a statement last night apologizing for 'any perception that [the soldiers] were told what to say' at the event. 'It is not the case,' he said. Di Rita said technological challenges prompted government officials to advise the soldiers what questions they would be asked 'solely to help the troops feel at ease during an obviously unique experience.' He said the soldiers decided who would answer."

Warren Vieth and Mark Mazzetti write in the Los Angeles Times: "President Bush touched off a new round of controversy over his policies in Iraq on Thursday when he conducted a videoconference interview about this weekend's constitutional referendum with a small group of handpicked troops stationed in Iraq who reinforced his upbeat view of the conflict."
The Event

The ultimate irony was that after all that rehearsing -- and maybe because of that rehearsing -- the event seemed awkward at best. It was choreographed, as Olbermann put it, "like your fifth grade class play was choreographed."

Pay close attention -- here's the transcript, here's the video -- and you'll notice that the answers Bush gets to his questions are not very responsive, as if Bush didn't ask the questions in the order the troops were expecting.

Bush asks if the Iraqi troops have improved, and Capt. Steven Pratt tells him about all the rehearsals for voting day.

Bush asks what the locals think, and Capt. David Williams explains that voter registration is up -- and then describes what someone else has heard from the locals, since he himself evidently hasn't spoken to any.

Bush asks how life has changed since the troops first got there, and Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo tells him about the time she met Bush before in New York after 9/11 -- and then answers his earlier question about whether Iraqi troops have improved.

Bush's own delivery was awkward, and his attempts at bonhomie were stymied by the time-lag.

Sense of Foreboding

Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker write in The Washington Post: "A series of scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already weakened administration, according to party strategists and White House advisers.

"With Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove returning to a grand jury as early as today, associates said the architect of Bush's presidency has been preoccupied with his legal troubles, a diversion that some say contributed to the troubled handling of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. White House officials are privately bracing for the possibility that Rove or other officials could be indicted in the next two weeks. . . .

"Several Republicans close to Bush said they believe the CIA leak investigation has taken a particular toll, reducing Rove's role in key decisions and prompting Bush to rely on other, less sure-footed advisers. . . .

"Two Republicans close to the White House said officials are nervous that Rove and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the two most powerful staffers in the federal government, could be indicted by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald within two weeks. While the idea struck many on the Bush team as unfathomable a few months ago, now the common assumption is that both men could be in trouble."

Richard W. Stevenson writes in the New York Times that White House staffers are worried about indictments that have "the potential to upend the professional lives of everyone at the White House for the remainder of Mr. Bush's second term. . . .

"The result, say administration officials and friends and allies on the outside who speak regularly with them, is a mood of intense uncertainty in the White House that veers in some cases into fear of the personal and political consequences and anger at having been caught in the snare of a special prosecutor. . . .

"Mr. Bush joked late last year with Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, about why Mr. Cooper was not yet in jail for fighting a subpoena demanding that he testify about a conversation with a source who later turned out to be Mr. Rove. These days, though, the leak investigation is almost never spoken of openly within the West Wing, and certainly not made light of, administration officials say."

It was a madhouse this morning at the stakeout spot affectionately knows as "Monica Beach," as Rove entered a federal courthouse.

Poll Watch

A Fox News poll "finds 40 percent of Americans today approve and 51 percent disapprove of the job Bush is doing as president. This is a new low for the president's approval rating -- though down only 1 point from last month's low of 41 percent approval.

"As has been the case for much of his presidency, Bush's approval rating shows a huge partisan gap; however, this is the first time of his presidency that approval among Republicans has dropped below 80 percent."

The Pew Research Center reports: "President George W. Bush's poll numbers are going from bad to worse. His job approval rating has fallen to another new low, as has public satisfaction with national conditions, which now stands at just 29%. And for the first time since taking office in 2001, a plurality of Americans believe that George W. Bush will be viewed as an unsuccessful president."

Incidentally, for those of you who read yesterday's column about Bush's two percent approval rating among blacks in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, the Pew poll has a larger sample and it finds Bush's approval rating among blacks at 12 percent, down only slightly from 14 in July. Here are those results.

Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, told me late yesterday that the 2 percent figure was "a striking finding." He said that 2 percent may be on the most extreme point within the margin of error, but nevertheless reflects that "something significant has happened" to black public opinion since Hurricane Katrina.

McClellan's Very Bad Day

Even by recent standards, yesterday's news briefing was a doozy.

I have neither the time nor space to do it justice.

But first, McClellan tried umbrage as a way to deflect questions about the troop videoconference.

"Q Scott, why did the administration feel it was necessary to coach the soldiers that the President talked to this morning in Iraq?

"MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry, I don't know what you're suggesting.

"Q Well, they discussed the questions ahead of time. They were told exactly what the President would ask, and they were coached, in terms of who would answer what question, and how they would pass the microphone.

"MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry, are you suggesting that what our troops were saying was not sincere, or what they said was not their own thoughts?"

Then, when Hearst columnist and briefing room elder stateswoman Helen Thomas asked him about Iraq, he accused her of being soft on terror.

"MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Helen, the President recognizes that we are engaged in a global war on terrorism. And when you're engaged in a war, it's not always pleasant, and it's certainly a last resort. But when you engage in a war, you take the fight to the enemy, you go on the offense. And that's exactly what we are doing. We are fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them here. September 11th taught us --

"THOMAS: It has nothing to do with -- Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

"MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you have a very different view of the war on terrorism, and I'm sure you're opposed to the broader war on terrorism. The President recognizes this requires a comprehensive strategy, and that this is a broad war, that it is not a law enforcement matter."

McClellan then called on Terry Moran, but Moran jumped to Thomas's defense.

"MORAN: On what basis do you say Helen is opposed to the broader war on terrorism?

"MR. McCLELLAN: Well, she certainly expressed her concerns about Afghanistan and Iraq and going into those two countries. I think I can go back and pull up her comments over the course of the past couple of years.

"MORAN: And speak for her, which is odd.

"MR. McCLELLAN: No, I said she may be, because certainly if you look at her comments over the course of the past couple of years, she's expressed her concerns -- "

"THOMAS: "I'm opposed to preemptive war, unprovoked preemptive war."

He continued his stonewall on all matters even vaguely related to the CIA leak case.

And after a long and fruitless back-and-forth with CBS News's John Roberts, McClellan criticized Roberts' coverage of the Miers nomination.

At one point, CNN'S Bob Franken shouted out: "Scott, isn't the idea we ask the questions and you provide the answers?"

McClellan responded: "Yes, and I was providing the answer. Can I not say what I want to say? . . . Isn't it my right to talk and say what I want to?"


More Axes of Evil?

Douglas Jehl writes in the New York Times: "Two months before the invasion of Iraq, President Bush told Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he 'wanted to go beyond Iraq' in dealing with the spread of illicit weapons and mentioned Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on a list of countries posing particular problems, according to notes taken by one of Mr. Blair's advisers cited in a new book. . . .

"The document is revealing in other ways not described in the book. It records a conversation between the leaders a day before they met in Washington, and shows that they discussed whether to seek a second United Nations resolution imposing an ultimatum on Iraq before beginning any military action. . . .

" 'His biggest concern was looking weak,' the British document says, describing Mr. Bush."

Pinter vs. Bush

The Nobel Committee may just have a grudge against President Bush.

First they give the peace prize to administration critic Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Then they give the literature prize to Harold Pinter, who has called British Prime Minister Tony Blair a "deluded idiot" and Bush a "mass murderer."

Pinter's own Web site offers a window into the author's feelings about American militarism. For instance, one poem starts:

"Here they go again,

"The Yanks in their armoured parade

"Chanting their ballads of joy

"As they gallop across the big world

"Praising America's God."

© 2005 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive

[smackdaddy11]

A soldiers view who was there. I'm sure his opinion means nothing being part of the conspiracy, right?

http://278medic.blogspot.com/

14 October 2005
Speaking with President Bush

Yesterday, I (bottom right corner in the picture) was chosen to be among a small group of soldiers assigned to the 42ID's Task Force Liberty that would speak to President Bush, our Commander-in-Chief. The interview went well, but I would like to respond to what most of the mass-media has dubbed as, "A Staged Event."
First of all, we were told that we would be speaking with the President of the United States, our Commander-in-Chief, President Bush, so I believe that it would have been totally irresponsible for us NOT to prepare some ideas, facts or comments that we wanted to share with the President.
We were given an idea as to what topics he may discuss with us, but it's the President of the United States; He will choose which way his conversation with us may go.
We practiced passing the microphone around to one another, so we wouldn't choke someone on live TV. We had an idea as to who we thought should answer what types of questions, unless President Bush called on one of us specifically.

President Bush told us, during his closing, that the American people were behind us. I know that we are fighting here, not only to preserve our own freedoms, but to establish those same freedoms for the people of Iraq. It makes my stomach ache to think that we are helping to preserve free speech in the US, while the media uses that freedom to try to RIP DOWN the President and our morale, as US Soldiers. They seem to be enjoying the fact that they are tearing the country apart. Worthless!
The question I was most asked while I was home on leave in June was, "So...What's REALLY going on over there?" Does that not tell you something?! Who has confidence in the media to tell the WHOLE STORY? It's like they WANT this to turn into another Vietnam. I hate to break it to them, but it's not.

Tomorrow morning, the Iraqi people will vote on their constitution. The success of our mission or the mission of the Iraqi security forces is not defined by the outcome of that vote. If the people of Iraq vote this constitution down, that only means that the FREE, DEMOCRATIC PROCESS is at work in Iraq. They are learning to voice their opinions in the polling stations, not through violence. If it is voted down, they will have the chance to draft an even better version; One that may better serve the people of Iraq. This is up to them. It is history in the making and I will not let the media or anyone else (who has not spent more than two weeks here) tell me otherwise. I have been here for almost a year. I have seen the progress made in so many ways from January's elections to this referendum. Don't tell me what the Iraqi people can or can't do. They will tell you with their VOTES!

If you would like to see our interview with President Bush, you may get it HERE.

[boutons]

Dear Mr. Military Person,

"We were given an idea as to what topics he may discuss with us"

Even as you were "chosen" (obviously with extreme care) to be smiling wallpaper for dubya's attempt to look presidential as his presidency sinks under its own lies and corruption, you still weren't trusted/respected to have your own ideas that could be off the menu of dubya's limited diet of knowledge of Iraq and the world. (Intellectual hunger is not something dubya has ever faced.)

"the American people were behind us."

For me, the military is just a neutral tool, a weapon, to wage war, to implement the policies of the politicians. The military is doing its job like any other employees.

So dissenting against the politicians and their policies is not being anti-military.

The fundamental problem is that military-service evader dubya was not "behind" YOUR LIVES/BODIES/MINDS when he opted to start a bogus war based on lies, now fully exposed as lies. As the list of bogus war justification was exposed, we're now at "democracy and freedom for Iraq". It's so far down the list because dubya's posse knew absolutely the USA would NOT get behind a war for that objective.

So, Mr Military Man, your REAL friends and supporters are the one who didn't/don't want to waste the precious military on BULLSHIT WARS for the sake of dubya's 2004 re-election and for enriching the enerby cos. One day, you may realize who your real friends are. Until then ...

GOOD LUCK!