The President Meets the Press in Prime Time

By: Greg Mitchell President Bush at his first primetime press conference in months tried to focus Thursday night on Social Security and energy prices, clearly conveying that he still planned to do something about each. The reporters wouldn?t always allow that, bringing up unsavory subjects such as Iraq and nuclear-armed North Korea.

Nevertheless the headlines in the Friday morning papers fix on the president?s new ?progressive-indexing" wrinkles in his Social Security plan, along with his repudiation of those on the far religious right who charge that those who oppose Bush?s judicial appointments are ?unAmerican.?

This is all covered in-depth elsewhere. But what else transpired, if you happened to be watching a ball game, playing beer-pong or a reality TV show?

--The president once again used a seating chart, and draft order, on the podium in front of him to call on reporters.

--There was no evidence of Jeff Gannon.

--An informal spirit pervaded, with Bush continually referring to ?Vladimir?(that?s Putin) and ?Condi.?

--NBC and CBS cut away abruptly as the witching hour of 9 p.m. approached?-with two questions yet to come. The key ratings period,the "May sweeps," has arrived. In case you missed the questions--in favor of Paris Hilton or The Donald--they had to do with those trivial, esoteric areas of North Korea and Social Security.

--Bush himself seemed to be on the some wavelength when he said he would take just one final question: ?I don?t want to cut into any of these programs they?re ready to air?-for the sake of the economy.?

--In that question, Knight Ridder's Ron Hutcheson (called "Hutch" by "43") used Vice President Cheney as an example of a "rich person" who would be affected by the latest Social Security shifts. Bush cracked, "Now don't get personal here on national TV." This was after NBC and CBS signed off, however.

--If the president is growing uptight about the Saturday Night Live skits mocking his constant references to ?hard work,? he did not show it, using the phrase in each of first two answers, and at least once later.

--He also showed that criticism of his refusal to ever admit a mistake hasn?t gotten to him either. Asked if he contributed at all to the growing partisan divide in Washington, he said, ?Some people just don?t like me.?

--Bush hasn?t lost his fondness for nicknames. When he called on tall Richard Keil of Bloomberg he referred to him as ?Stretch.? Keil admitted he?d been called worse names.

--The president said "we're making real good progress in Iraq," despite General Richard Myers report this week that the insurgency is as strong as ever. He also declared "we ARE making progress" in the war on terror, despite yesterday's news that fatal terrorist acts have actually been increasing.

--He refused to set a timetable for removing any troops from Iraq, beyond "as soon as possible." He made a misleading claim that troop levels had recently been cut from 160,000 to 139,000. But that higher number had only appeared momentarily during the Fallujah assault and the Iraqi elections.

--"John Bolton is a blunt guy."