I couldn't resist watching Bush's live conference call with soldiers in Tikrit. Even during a carefully scripted event, speaking to soldiers whose answers were obviously coached and practised, W. still came across as fumbly and un-natural as a Texas Baptist at a Greek Orthodox service. The first segment included a painfully wooden and didactic Bush lecturing the troops with the standard 9/11 fight against terror root out and kill the terrorists stay the road litany. My favorite moment? His earpiece falling out and Bush saying "Ooops" and trying to pretend it wasn't there.
But there's one change after these events: the talking heads on MSNBC, after initially gushing about its "charm," immediately began discussing how obviously scripted it was with Jim Vandahei of the Post, and then went through a laundry list of negatives for the preznit, including the fact that many Americans might find these charades hard to swallow after experiencing them again and again.
Of course one of the soldiers happened to have been at Ground Zero with the prez after 9/11, and of course one was an Iraqi who said "I like youze!"
Polls in the 20s soon.
