http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003315514NEW YORK (October 26, 2006) -- If you've ever fantasized about what it would be like to eavesdrop on our president chatting with some of his strongest fans in the media, then your decidedly odd dream has come true. President Bush met with eight leading conservative columnists on Wednesday afternoon, and a transcript has just been released.
It's a fascinating fly-on-the-wall replay, nearly all on-the-record -- as the president explains, "I'm a skeptical off-the-record" guy. Surprisingly, there's less joking around than at most press conferences, although he does call Larry Kudlow of CNBC "Kuds" and claims he is a "blood and guts" guy. Clearly among friends (Krauthammer, Henninger, Blankley, and the rest), Bush states, "al-Qaeda is lethal as hell," and then instructs, "scratch the 'hell' -- it's lethal." Later he urges, "don't be writing -- don't write me down as hopelessly naive and trying to always put lipstick on the pig."
And there were, for me at least, some surprising revelations. Bush says, for example, that Gen. John Abizaid ("one of the really great thinkers") was the one who "came up with" the recent construct about the enemy in Iraq, "If we leave, they will follow us here." Bush then explains that this is what makes the Iraq struggle "really different from other wars we've been in." This completely overlooks the official U.S. line in trying to halt the communists in Vietnam and Korea, not to mention the Nazis and the Japanese in World War II.
"I'm not a good faker," Bush declares elsewhere, which some may disagree with.
Another revealing moment comes when Bush flatly declares that only "25% or so" of Americans want the U.S. out of Iraq. In fact, a Gallup poll released this week shows that the number is actually 54% who want us out quickly -- within a year at most. Bush also mischaracterizes the war opponents, saying they "just don't believe in war," as if they are all pacifists.
<snip>
Unfrickingbelievable.:smoke: