There was something very feeble and pathetic about the President's video conference with the 11 troops in Iraq this morning. Part of it was the presentation itself - the way we are forced to watch the President and the troops reassure each other that the script is intact, the image of such a small number of troops sitting before the camera (can't the President draw more supportive troops than this?) all agreeing that despite news to the contrary the show goes on, and all of them - President included -looking unsure.
But watching it I also got the creepy feeling that Bush was trying to teach me and the good folks at home watching the video conference a lesson. How the troops are lined up, the position of the Television, the position of the President (not acknowledging the audience behind the camera), the posture of the President (rigid, frustrated, running out of patience), the position of the camera, all of it says to me (the viewer at home) to shut the hell up and listen.
Of course, there is more
To underline just how surreal it was for the President to have a video-conference from the White House with 11 soldiers thousands of miles away in Iraq, Bush mentions that thing about wishing he could be there.
In Iraq. Tikrit, to be specific. Didn't he say something just about as awkward while flying in Air Force One and looking down on the devastation of New Orleans? That is, after Katrina became a problem for him politically. If you were watching the video conference and didn't think the whole event was awkward before, Bush was now making it about as obvious as a person could make it.
The thing is, Bush is still wrong. With all the rigidity of the performances, with all the desperation of a President relying on the awe and compliance of 11 soldiers to project a timid image of faith in the mission, the thing that makes this event so pathetic is how he thinks this does him any good at this point. Does it really make any ground with the folks at home with newly-formed doubts about the prosecution of the war? Does it distract from the battle over Harriet Meirs with his own supporters? Does it distract from the far sexier scandal developing with Rove and Scooter? Does it even reassure troops in the field just a little?
So why did they do this? To kill time? To reassure the President that he could gain back a poll point or two with another photo-op? Was it to teach the folks at home a lesson? Was it to keep the President on the offense? Or, in the end, was it simply to let the President let off a little steam?
Many of the events of late have given me a sense of an administration coming unglued, but today's event left me feeling absolutely warm with the tangy aftertaste of an organization in shock. Yum yum.
First diary. How was it for you?