As I’ve mentioned on (probably too) many occasions, Bush addresses large crowds all of the time, but the audiences are almost always made up of adoring fans. When he hosts an “Ask the President” event, the questions are exclusively positive set-ups, agreed upon in advance and designed to make Bush look good.
The point is to show Bush interacting with “regular Americans” and “earning” their support. The downside, however, is that the president doesn’t get much experience in answering tough questions from those who are skeptical of him. Surrounded by yes-men and introduced only to sycophants, Bush just doesn’t get any practice in being challenged.
It causes more problems for Bush than the White House cares to admit. The president’s Meet the Press appearance in February, for example, was a disaster. It wasn’t that Russert was overly aggressive and/or looking for “gotcha” moments; it’s that Bush wasn’t prepared to talk to someone who isn’t already predisposed to flatter and complement him. When he finally gets a question that his aides didn’t write for someone in advance, Bush gets that Quayle-like deer-in-the-headlights look.
Just such a moment happened late last week. It wasn’t pretty.
At the Unity Journalists of Color Convention, Bush heard from some reporters who seemed anxious to stump the president. (One wonders why he spoke to the group in the first place; perhaps overcompensating for blowing off the NAACP four years in a row?)
In particular, Mark Trahant. the editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a member of the Native American Journalist Association, wanted to know what Bush thinks “tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century.” Bush responded:
“Tribal sovereignty means that, it’s sovereign. You’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty, and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity. And, therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.”
And if you think it looks embarrassing in print, wait until you hear it. As Michael Froomkin noticed, the fine folks at Majority Report Radio have put an audio version of the exchange online. It’s worth listening to, if only for comic relief.
Pay particular attention to the fact that the journalists in attendance began literally giggling when the president defined sovereignty in the 21st century as having been “given sovereignty.” Reporters often find Bush’s responses to questions wrong or evasive, but you know it’s bad when they’re literally laughing at him.