This is somewhat redundant, and for that I apologize, but here’s how The Washington Post covered my meeting with the President in today’s edition:
President Reaches Out to a Friendly Circle in New Media
By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 16, 2007; A07
The day after his prime-time speech on Iraq, President Bush sat down for a round-table interview not with traditional White House reporters but with bloggers who focus on military issues, including two participating by video link from Baghdad.
Judging from some of the accounts of the Friday meeting, the president offered up little news. Here is what one of the 10 bloggers, Ward Carroll of Military.com, described from his notes as some of Bush’s most notable comments:
“This strategy is my strategy.”
“I’m defining a horizon of peace.”
“I don’t mind people attacking me.… That’s politics … but I do mind people impugning the integrity of our generals.”
Still, the hour-long meeting in the Roosevelt Room offered Bush another opportunity to break through what he sees as the filter of the traditional news media, while also reaching out to the providers of a new source of information for soldiers, their families and others who follow the conflict in Iraq closely.
“More and more we are engaging in the new-media world, and these are influential people who have a big following,” said Kevin F. Sullivan, the White House communications chief.
Bush told the group that, to his knowledge, it was the first time a president had met with bloggers for a chat at the White House, one of the participants wrote. The blogs represented at the meeting are generally pro-Bush and pro-military, and the ensuing reports were highly sympathetic to the president.
“At this meeting President Bush came off as more comfortable with the message than I’ve seen him appear on TV or in speeches,” wrote Carroll, a journalist and former Navy pilot. “No deer-in-the-headlights stuff here. Truly unwavering and passionate. Facts on the ground notwithstanding, he believes the United States can win the Iraq War. And to be honest, being around him made me believe it at that moment too.”
Matthew Burden, a former Army officer who blogs under the name Blackfive, raved about how Bush slapped his hand and called him “brutha.”
“The President was very intelligent, razor sharp, warm, focused, emotional (especially about his dad), and genuine,” Blackfive wrote. “Even more so than this cynical Chicago Boy expected. I was overwhelmed by the sincerity — it wasn’t staged.”
Bill Ardolino, who participated from Baghdad, wrote on indcjournal.com that he asked Bush about progress in Anbar province and Fallujah and that Bush’s answer “honestly surprised me in its length, level of detail and grasp of events on the ground.”
Bush told Ardolino: “The military can only do so much. There has to be follow-up with jobs and hope. We recognize that the man on the street needs to feel like his government cares about him.”
Bush talked about the difficulty of setting up workable bureaucratic processes in Iraq, according to Ardolino’s post, and the growing pains “that this society needs to go through” to achieve stability. “We shouldn’t expect instant results with a society that was brutalized by Saddam Hussein,” Bush told the group.
When it was all over, the bloggers seemed wowed. “All in all, it was an amazing day for Military.com and one I’ll never forget,” Carroll wrote. “In fact, I’d rank the event a close second to the time I sat in with Cheap Trick. It was that good.”
– Ward
Ah, to be called “brutha” by George Bush, a man whose unpopularity in the US is only exceeded by that in the rest of the world except perhaps El Salvador, Poland and Burkina Faso. Could there be a higher tribute?
Hey Don,
I am glad your here. You bring the other side of the argument to the table. You are being an American and exercising your rights to speak out. Congratulations! Now, you are a big anti-war, peace loving guy. That’s cool. I am all for peace. I am sure your against the invasion/liberation of Iraq. However, what about Afghanistan? What is your view about the US being in Afghanistan. Should we just pull of out there too?
Yo American G,
Welcome to politicstech.org
The US isn’t in Afghanistan, NATO is and the US is a part of it. Six years after the Northern Alliance and the US overthrew the Taliban government that we previously supported, NATO is failing in its mission to rout the Taliban and al-Qaeda. There is growing insecurity not only in the countryside but in Kabul.
Consider that an American Embassy staffer in Kabul going to the U.S. Agency for International Development office across the street is required to use an underground tunnel that links the two compounds.
So the US is now preparing to negotiate with the Taliban, something it could’ve done six years ago. It’s tied together with the mess in Pakistan, but hopefully the US and NATO will be able to leave soon. I wouldn’t want to be there, would you?
Hey Don,
Just a small correction.
The US is in Afghanistan as both part of NATO and also has around 15,000 troops based in the North of the country NOT tasked with NATO.
Secondly the growing insecurity is the fault of many NATO countries not allowing there forces to actually fight. In the most dangerous areas only the UK, US and Canada are allowing there forces to do the job properly, but other NATO countries are not allowing there forces to assist, and in many cases are not supplying even simple assistance such as helicopters and transport aircraft sorely needed by the 3 nations.
Whatever, man. That’s hardly the only reason, or even a main reason, for the growing insecurity in Afghanistan.
Anyway, I can’t decide whether Abramowitz wants to make Ward Carroll look like a stooge or not. I thought his article was pretty neutral, rather than specifically pro-Bush.
Re Don’s comment, I’m not a big fan of the President but I will say the US presidency should never be a popularity contest…that is what gave us Clinton in ’96 and his refusal to make tough choices when the AQ threat was growing. If you are a popular President in this country after 7 years service, you aren’t doing your job, especially at a time of war.
Imagine how popular the President would have been had he slashed the US budget in line with his tax cuts the past 7 years…ok, he would have been popular with fiscal conservatives, but those folks that deem him ‘unpopular’ today would have hated him even worse.
It is all a matter of individual perspective, Don.
Hey, mang, I don’t need no WaPo writer to look like a stooge. I do that just fine on my own.
In the photo, I recognize Ward, but who’s the guy on the left?
Very splendid
nice to meet you