From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Take an Aspirin, Howard

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Take an Aspirin, Howard

April 17, 2004

Given his position, the noted media critic for the Washington Post Howard Kurtz almost has to be obsessed with "inside baseball" news items the rest of the country couldn't care about less. Yet even he manages to really step in it, with his claim today that footage in a DNC web ad mocking part of Bush's press conference earlier this week, "would seem to provide irresistible ammunition for a television ad.."

Consider the footage, and context. Bush was asked to identify his biggest mistake as president, so far. He replied:

'Hmm. I wish you had given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it,' the president is shown saying, slowly. 'You know I just, uh, I'm sure something will pop into my head here, in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet. . . . You just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be on coming up with one.'

I heard the response, and thought it was either honest and unvarnished, or alternately, down-home cagey. However anyone looks at it, Bush didn't take the bait from critics hoping he'd perversely join in their Bush-bashing. That must be frustrating indeed for the DNC, White House press corps and Howard Kurtz.

Bush was in much the same situation as a job interviewee asked to discuss their greatest weakness. You have every right to decline an opportunity for self-immolation. Looking at the whole speech and press conference, two strands were glaringly evident: Bush advanced his agenda forcefully, and when repeatedly asked to find fault with himself, declined.

To Washington reporters who believe in the transforming power of psychotherapy, he's doubtless an odd duck.

Kurtz is right about one thing, when he qualifies his assertion by saying the footage would SEEM to offer irresisitible footage for a TV ad. "Seem" to you, Howard, and the losers who run the DNC.