NYT: Bush now takes some tough questions, from unstacked audiences

[DeepModem Mom]

White House Letter
Hardballs Replace Softballs, and Bush Takes a Few Swings
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: March 20, 2006
WASHINGTON

At first it looked as if it was going to be another warm bath of a White House question-and-answer session with President Bush. There was a happy group of retirees arranged on a stage, a poster in red, white and blue that proclaimed "Strengthening Medicare" and a peppy president with microphone in hand.

But at the Riderwood Village retirement community last week in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Md., something different happened: the president got hit with hardballs by the crowd of 80-somethings. Not only did the retirees, many of them Democrats and former government officials, ask sharp questions about the day's topic, the Medicare prescription drug program, they took on Mr. Bush on global warming and nuclear war.

"I guess I'm one of the three left standing Americans who did the negotiation of the nonproliferation treaty," one of the retirees, Lawrence Weiler, a former official of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, told Mr. Bush. But the treaty can't hold, Mr. Weiler said, if the position of the United States is that it will initiate a nuclear war "if it is necessary." Would the president consider a "no-first-use" policy instead?

Mr. Bush, startled, said he would think about it, thanked Mr. Weiler for his contribution, then concluded the session with a "God bless you all." Afterward, White House officials insisted that they were pleased. "The president is at his best when he's answering real and difficult questions from a cross-section of Americans," said Nicolle Wallace, the White House communications director....(I)n the last three months, Mr. Bush has started taking questions, some of them tough, from audiences not stacked with supporters. Mr. Bush typically sidesteps the hardest questions, but his answers often produce news. It is a big change from last year and, particularly, from the 2004 campaign, when the president appeared before rapt crowds who had gotten in with tickets from local Republican parties....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/20/politics/20letter.html

[Call me Deacon Blues]

1. I'll bet he about wet his pants on that last question

And I'll bet it won't last. He'll either say something stupid or he'll get pissed off at a peasant daring to question his infalliblity and his handlers will pull him back out of circulation.

[Drewskie]

16. ...

[Don Claybrook]

2. This is not some kind of trend

Bush and his bootlickers just made the mistake of thinking that the elderly were feeble of mind as well as body. They won't let this happen again; they can't afford to have dipshit get his ass kicked repeatedly by retirees.

I don't know much about Elisabeth Bumiller. Is she closer to the Judith Miller or the Helen Thomas school of journalism?

[Beetwasher]

4. She's One of the WORST

peddlers of propoganda at the Times, if not THE worst.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. She has not been our friend. nt

[Beetwasher]

3. Propoganda, It's A Bumiller Alright!

LOL! I swear, I begun reading that and failed to look at the byline, by the time I was halfway through I said "It must be a Bumiller", and sure enough!

[boobooday]

5. Not enough supporters to stack now, eh?

This is the line that made me laugh out loud:

"The president is at his best when he's answering real and difficult questions from a cross-section of Americans," says his representative from the Ministry of Truth.

The President ended with "God Bless you all," adding under his breath, "except that America-hating, Saddam-loving geezer in the third row . . . "

:rofl:

[DeepModem Mom]

9. You may be right -- not enough supporters left to stack an audience! nt

[boobooday]

11. That's my "happy thought" of the day

When 70% of citizens are angry at you, it must be hard to find a crowd of nothing but sycophants.

[ThomWV]

6. So The News Is The Asswipe Finally Got Asked A Question

After 5 fucking years the headline news is someone was finally able to sneak in a question to the asswipe. This is progress?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. Here's tough question #1...unscripted, unrehearsed, unplugged:

80-Something: "Mr. President, did it hurt?"

Bush: "Did what hurt, Stretch?"

80-something: "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"

Bush: Thank you for your question, Stretch. You're right. We ARE making progress in Eye-rack. And we're not comin' home till we win. Next question?

[Rose Siding]

10. I wondered why this wasn't a bigger story last week. He bombed. link-

snip from WP article posted within this thread>
Faced with a persistent questioner who asked him what could be done to help her elderly mother understand Medicare's new prescription drug plan, President Bush offered a suggestion that at first elicited shocked gasps, and then supportive applause, from an audience of retirees in Silver Spring yesterday.

"Look, I'm not going to tell you your business, but I think it's your responsibility to help your mom," Bush told Wendy Meyeroff. She had asked him to consider extending the May 15 deadline for registering for the new benefit without a penalty, but Bush refused.

"No," he said. "And the reason why is there's got to be a fixed time for people to sign up."
.....
Meyeroff, who questioned Bush about her mother, said she didn't "totally disagree with him. But that's not a good answer for everyone." A health editor for Erickson Retirement Communities, which owns Riderwood, Meyeroff said she was speaking on her own behalf.

Audience member Alan Mayers, a retired federal worker, said Bush's answer didn't account for seniors who don't have help from a child. "I think that was a little bit heartless, but consistent with the general approach of the administration toward safety nets," he said.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=676291#683492

[DeepModem Mom]

21. Thanks for adding this fuller report, Rose!

[unblock]

12. they pretend like this is some amazing achievement!

and the best example they can show is of him ducking a question, yet they still get that quote in about how he's "at his best when he's answering real and difficult questions from a cross-section of americans".

yeah, right. that's why you couldn't find a good quote from shrub himself, and that's why they carefully screened all those audiences and questions before.


this is a DESPERATION tactic if ever the was one.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. The best quote in this article:

"The president is at his best when he's answering real and difficult questions from a cross-section of Americans,"

Then why does he spend so much time in front of a handpicked crowd of fawning supporters?

[AlCzervik]

14. is that what Bumiller thinks? Sounds like a line right off a wh press

release. I read an article about her, Candy Crowley and Danan Milbank about 2 years ago and they each said they enjoyed covering the Bush campaign much more than Kerry becasue Kerry "was Boring".

[Arkansas Granny]

25. Actually, the statement I referenced was made by Nicolle

Wallace, the White House Communications Director.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Note that he didn't actually ANSWER the question

Even Bumiller can't hide that fact.

[LisaLynne]

17. This is a perfect example of just how deceptive and false ...

their spin is. * clearly bombed. He's horrible in front of real people asking real questions, that's why he has to have hand-picked fawing crowds. And they just say the opposite and the corporate media doesn't call them on their blatant lie.

[rustydog]

18. Bush has ALWAYS taken tough questions. The problem is

Bush refuses to answer the tough question.

[linazelle]

19. Bubble boy took a break for a minute. Wow! THATs news!!!

:sarcasm:

[zbdent]

20. Dimbot is "appearing" in Cleveland today

and they're making a big stink about it being a "city club forum" where it was a "first-come-first-serve" ticket.

So, they're touting it as "unscripted question and answer period" . . .

Like I believe that . . . bet most of the questioners were planted bushbots who, despite being last in line, were able to get one of those "hot" tickets . . .

[DeepModem Mom]

22. How about giving us a report on this appearance...

if you can, zbdent. I'm curious if it will be "unscripted" as advertised.

[zbdent]

23. I'm lucky if I can stand being in the same county as him

let alone the same room . . .

If I hear anything, I will post it. Maybe links to the "news" stories.

However, in the Cleveland area, 98.5 FM (WNCX) tends to play the City Club appearances on Sunday mornings.

[DeepModem Mom]

24. Actually, zbdent, CNN broadcast it in its entirety!

And he did take unscripted questions. There are some threads on it currently on GD.

[zbdent]

26. I'm SHOCKED!

Shocked, I say!

[countryjake]

27. Aside from the obvious "plants", there were some good questions...

Here's a link to the DU play-by-play of the coverage:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=706218&mesg_id=706218

[DeepModem Mom]

28. Thanks, countryjake!