A few months ago, Jennifer Loven wrote a great item for the AP on the frequency with which [tag]Bush[/tag] relies on [tag]straw-men[/tag] arguments to gain the rhetorical upper hand. Today, in a Rose Garden press conference, the [tag]president[/tag] went to the same well repeatedly.
* “…I fully understand how people might have made the decision that America is no longer under threat, or the lessons of September the 11th were just momentary lessons.”
Who thinks the threat is over? Who believes the lessons of 9/11 were “momentary”? Bush didn’t say, probably because no one actually thinks that.
* “I said that if people say, well, there’s got to be no violence in order for this to be a successful experience, then it’s not going to happen.”
And who created this “no violence = victory” standard? Apparently, Bush did — in order for him to shoot it down.
* “Now, I recognize some in the country don’t feel that same sense of urgency I do. But al Qaeda is real; their philosophy is a real philosophy; they have ambitions.”
Who, exactly, takes a lackadaisical attitude towards al Qaeda? Once again, the president who has problems with reality enjoys taking on critics who don’t actually exist. Bush has finally found an opponent he can beat in a policy debate: the imaginary kind.
Aside from beating straw men and mocking a legally-blind reporter’s sunglasses, today’s [tag]press conference[/tag] was a little thin. It’s worth noting, however, that there were a couple of pretty good Plame/Rove-related questions.
One reporter asked:
“Mr. President. Mr. President, when you ran for office for the first time, you said you would hold the White House to a higher ethical standard. Even if Karl Rove did nothing illegal, I wonder whether you can say now whether you approve of his conduct in the CIA leak episode, and do you believe he owes Scott McClellan or anyone else an apology for misleading them?”
A few minutes later, another asked:
“[Y]ou said that you were relieved with what happened yesterday [with Rove]. But the American public, over the course of this investigation, has learned a lot about what was going on in your White House that they didn’t know before, during that time, the way some people were trying to go after Joe Wilson, in some ways. I’m wondering if, over the course of this investigation, that you have learned anything that you didn’t know before about what was going on in your administration. And do you have any work to do to rebuild credibility that might have been lost?”
Of course, Bush didn’t answer either of these questions, but the reporters deserve some credit for raising relatively tough points about this scandal.
Maybe it’s indicative of a press corps that isn’t satisfied and will keep demanding answers of the White House? A guy can dream….