Maybe a B in economics, but perhaps an F in current affairs and elocution

It was another most unusual press conference today from George Bush, as he faced the White House press corps to address financial concerns, the state of affairs in Iraq and to give his take on “left wing groups” that form political action groups, something that it seems would never take place on the right.

The topic of the economy was prominent in the press conference; the President was asked if he was hurt by former Fed Chariman Alan Greenspan’s comments in his recently published book, which seems to have found fault with many of the Bush era policies in matters economic. With the US currently under a bit of stress in the financial world, what with mortgage holders defaulting and mortgage companies imploding the President observed that in his opinion things were fine with the US economy, but "you need to check with an economist"... "I think I got a B in econ 101."
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On to politics where The President proclaimed himself to be an asset to the Republican quest to return to the White House in 2008, this despite a public approval rating that has flirted with thirty percent and then returned to the mid twenties.

He took offence at the recent advertisement from moveon.org which the President suggested attacked the reputation of the General Petraeus, currently leading the fight in Iraq. He politicized the situation even more than it already was, by asking why few Democrats shared his disgust in the ad.

Of course it was the Republicans who made the General a political figure in the first place by having him do the Washington congressional coffee and meeting circuit last week, in effect selling the White House version of progress in Iraq. And well, the Republican dirty tricks squad of past elections has a history of certainly doing much worse than moveon.orgs misguided and juvenile attempt a word play.



However, the head scratcher of the session (and the one that may have been missed above and has been covered the most tonight) came when the President tried to paraphrase a “comment that he overheard” that there were No Mandela’s in Iraq ready to take charge of the nation and lead, that observation somehow got trampled into there are no Mandela’s left, “Mandela’s dead, because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandela’s”… too which a White House press corps must have gone huh (or pounded out Mandela’s dead on their blackberries) ?



No doubt, the comment caused a wee bit of anxiety in South Africa where Mr. Mandela still among the living, was probably quoting Mark Twain about rumors of his demise being greatly exaggerated.

Needless to say the press conference has been featured on countless television news and comedy shows tonight, all of which dutifully recorded the President’s comments word for word, because really no embellishment is needed it seems.

Tony Snow, come back… there’s a need for some splaining tonight...