Most of the news coverage following the president’s lengthy appearance on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday dealt with Bush’s defense of John McCain’s conservative ideology. (The president said McCain is “absolutely” conservative, adding, “Look, he’s very strong on national defense. He’s tough fiscally. He believes that tax cuts ought to be permanent. He’s pro-life.”)
But for me, the most striking exchange came towards the end, when Fox News’ Chris Wallace brought up torture. Bush emphasized that his interrogation methods were legal because his lawyers told him so, and added the kind of shameless demagoguery we’ve come to expect from the president on the subject: “[F]or those who criticize what we did in the past, I ask them which attack would they rather have not permitted — stopped.”
After the clumsy remark, Wallace asked a jaw-dropper:
WALLACE: I want to follow up on that. Whether it’s interrogation of terror prisoners or the intercepting of surveillance among Al Qaida members, are you ever puzzled by all the concern in this country about protecting the rights of people who want to kill us?
BUSH: Oh, that’s an interesting way to put it. I wouldn’t necessarily define some of the critics of my policy that way. I would say that they want to be very careful that we don’t overstep our bounds from protecting the civil liberties of Americans, and I understand that a lot.
I do think that some of the programs we put in place, like listening to people calling into America — that some of the claims about what we’re doing have been exaggerated.
Got that? Wallace was so over the top with his ridiculous question, which sought to smear those concerned with American civil liberties, that even Bush wasn’t comfortable agreeing with the Fox News personality’s point.
As Glenn Greenwald put it, “If the subject of a political interview finds the questions from the ‘journalist’ too favorably slanted to embrace (basically: “I think you’re being unfairly harsh to my political opponents”), isn’t that a fairly compelling sign that there is something profoundly corrupt with the journalist?”
Actually, yes, it does.
There were no shortage of gems in the interview, and I may get a couple of additional posts out of it, but there was one other quick exchange I wanted to add. Wallace noted that Democratic presidential candidates have been using the president as a “pinata.” Bush responded:
“You know, my attitude is so long as they’re talking about me, we have a better chance of winning, because our candidate will — what’s going to matter is not the past but the future when it comes to campaigns.
“And if the Democrat [sic] Party feels like they can win an election by focusing on me, I think they’ll be making a huge tactical mistake, but I hope they do that, then, because our candidate will be able to talk about the future and what this person intends to do for the country.”
Bush really seems to underestimate just how unpopular he is, doesn’t he?
Of course Dems are going to argue that a vote for McCain is a vote for four more years of Bush-Cheney. Indeed, McCain is apparently poised to make the job even easier for Dems.