Bush's News Conference: Presidents as Communicators in Wartime

Linda Feldmann, in the Christian Science Monitor (April 16, 2004):

Like a Rorschach ink blot, Bush's performance in a rare primetime news conference Tuesday evening was interpreted by the public and pundits, usually according to their established ideas. Republicans thought he was effective, showing resolve and determination to see through his vision of turning Iraq into a model of democracy. Democrats found his lack of detail and range exasperating.

One notable exception, from the Republican camp, was William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard magazine, who supports the war in Iraq, but told the Los Angeles Times he found Bush's performance depressing, because the president didn't explain how the US is going to win in Iraq.

Mr. Kristol's concern is that Bush needs to make an explicit case to the growing ranks of Americans who are doubtful or worried - not just to those who already support him.

"He's a cheerleader," says presidential historian Robert Dallek. It is a point not without irony: Bush was head cheerleader in prep school.

"Lyndon Johnson did that, too - and we know where that got him. He also complained about nervous Nellies and the need to stay the course, there's light at the end of the tunnel, we're making progress, we can't not back up the boys, it'll come out all right."

Professor Dallek believes that kind of rhetoric can work for a while, because as president, Bush gets some leeway. But over the long haul, facts on the ground - televised on multiple channels at any hour - will outweigh the words from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"This is not Vietnam, but it comes in the shadow of Vietnam, so the patience that people will show with this kind of rhetoric will be substantially curtailed," Dallek adds.

Presidential historian Fred Greenstein contrasts Bush's style with that of President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the last massive attack on American soil before 9/11, Roosevelt elaborated on it in depth to the public, using strong, eloquent rhetoric, "the way his buddy Winston Churchill did."

"His impulse was always to tell the American people where they were and where they were going, and explain the vicissitudes and adversities," says Professor Greenstein of Princeton University.

In contrast, Greenstein refers to a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair last year, in which Mr. Blair went on at length about course of the Iraq war, with Bush jumping in every so often with a terse "as long as it takes."

Bush is fortunate that Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, his Democratic opponent for the presidency, also wins no prizes for rhetorical style, often described as leaden and stentorian, or even preachy.

"If Kerry was as nimble as a [John] Kennedy, Bush would really be hurting," says Greenstein.