Go read
Froomkin today. He is right on target on the state of debate from the White House.
Is President Bush genuinely willing to confront his critics?
Of course we can assume the answer to that question is a resounding "NO", but the WH wants you to believe he is.
The new White House communications strategy is ostensibly to get the president out in public more often, speaking to the press and the public, serving as his own best advocate.
But if yesterday's appearance before the National Restaurant Association in Chicago was any indication -- and it was -- then the plan is not so much for Bush to publicly mix it up with critics as to have him continue repeating his tired old talking points so often that people, hopefully, start to believe them.
Thankfully, Froomkin offers a friendly suggestion about where to go next:
So here's my suggestion: It's time for Bush to invite dissenters not just into the room, but onto the stage with him.
How about welcoming Rep. John Murtha to the White House for a public conversation about the war? Or Sen. Russell Feingold, for a discussion of Article II? What about calling a town meeting on global warming and sharing the stage with Al Gore? Or asking Lou Dobbs up to talk immigration?
Ok...I'm done laughing. So it'll never happen...but wouldn't it be great? He got the idea from Clinton's Social Security 'tour' in 1998:
The idea of a president actually facing his critics head on sounds utterly alien today, but as I wrote in my February 8, 2005 column -- after Bush himself compared his Social Security blitz to President Clinton's -- when Clinton held his "discussions" on Social Security, he intentionally brought opponents along with him, spoke before a mixed crowd, and let himself get grilled.
Here , for instance, is the transcript of an April 7, 1998 appearance by Clinton in Kansas City. He invited Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), among others, to join him.
And while the audience was laboriously prescreened, that was so that it would not be one-sided. Members were selected by a market research company to reflect the demographic and economic characteristics of the region.
Can you even find the neurons to fire up the imagination machine for that to actually happen with Bush? It would be such an embarrassment for him...but oh what great theater.