  Scripted Press Conference By Duf "Trying to be Fair" Fer I need to start by saying that I although I am a (Big D) Democrat (always have been, always will be - well unless a Socialist Party gains momentum), I do have a healthy list of Republicans that I have liked.
Arne Carlson has to go down as one of the best Governors Minnesota has ever had, and I quite admire John McCain. Eisenhower and Ford were not so bad, and (believe it or not) I find much to admire in the policies of George H.W.
Bush the elder (a multilateralist who was moderate and broke his promise ("read my lips no new taxes") because it was for the good of the nation - in other words, he put our interests above his own, the definition of leadership) and Nixon (he opened relations with China and took us off the Gold Standard). Teddy Roosevelt basically started Presidential environmentalism and must be credited for the strength of our national parks system. So I feel I can be somewhat unbiased in evaluating Presidents. I must also add that my favorite quality in a President is intelligence.
Vision is a very close second, and charisma is a somewhat distant third. That is why I absolutely adore Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter (not a terribly effective President, but the best former President of all time). That is part of Dick Nixon's appeal to me. Yes, he was icky in a lot of respects, but he was brilliant too. Same with Clinton (who is intelligent, had a vision and had oodles of charisma. Boy did he have charisma.
He had, as it turns out, too much charisma). The lack of intelligence that I perceive in George W. Bush and that I perceived in Ronald Reagan is the center of my issue with them. You cannot lead if you are not able to master the information, retention, strategic and diplomatic requirements of the job. If you are not the master of all the facts and figures, you cannot grasp complexities and subtleties, and you cannot connect the dots .
Here is one part of my point. Reagan used to clear his calendar for two days in advance of a State of the Union address (just as an actor memorizes lines...). Bush, returned from "vacation" last night to hold a "scripted press conference" (not my words) where he visited with the press for one hour and took questions after a 20 minute speech. The questions were (for the most part) submitted in advance, and the answers were scripted. When one question was asked off the script, the President replied, without humor, that he "wished you would have sent me that question in advance so that I could have prepared a response.
" The question was (paraphrasing) you once said that the biggest mistake you made was trading Sammy Sosa. Now that you have been President for three years, would that still qualify as your biggest mistake?
It hurts my heart that our leader does not have the ability to think on his feet and master a wide arrange of facts and information (I wondered during the press conference what he would have done if an unscripted question on Uzbekistan was asked.). Yes, the mistake question is a tricky question. Bush cannot admit mistakes related to 9-11 if he wants to be re-elected, and, in order to be responsive, he needed to come up with something that would qualify as a mistake (how about hiring Paul O'Neill?). Presidents who don't think on their feet and who lack their own ideas are not able to govern or lead.
They are essentially figure heads. It all reminds me of the Wizard of Oz when the curtain gets pulled back and you find a diminutive man speaking into an amplifier. Presidents like Reagan and Bush Light are at the mercy of their advisors. No modern President can succeed without counsel, and I don't want to be misunderstood, but ultimately, we all do better when the President seeks input and then makes the final decision on what course we will take (see, e.g.
President Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs Incident). I'm sorry, Presidents who spend days preparing for speeches and Press Conferences do not inspire that kind of image for me. 
