No Apologies

Fred Barnes enjoyed Bush's press conference a little more than I did. Nevertheless, he makes a good point when he says Bush stayed "on message." The most unseemly questions were those dedicated to extracting an apology from Bush for not preventing the terrorist attacks. These are the inanities inflicted upon us by our rhetorical system -- like Bernie Shaw asking Michael Dukakis a hypothetical question about his wife being raped as a means of understanding his thoughts on crime and punishment. Anyway, at least Bush didn't comply. His reply that our enemy was on a war footing while we weren't was perfect. He should have left it at that instead of rambling on.

I don't want any president apologizing to me. I don't want any maudlin, undignified scenes. I don't want any Richard Clarke shmaltz. If I view a particular president as incompetent, I'll know what to do in November.