Bush Abuses the Press in Rosewell

I'm hard-pressed to believe this is real. But, the transcript is up on the real whitehouse.gov website and it appears authentic.

Excerpt:

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, good. What would you like?

Q Ribs.

THE PRESIDENT: Ribs? Good. Let's order up some ribs.

Q What do you think of the democratic field, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: See, his job is to ask questions, he thinks my job is to answer every question he asks. I'm here to help this restaurant by buying some food. Terry, would you like something?

Q An answer.

Q Can we buy some questions?

THE PRESIDENT: Obviously these people -- they make a lot of money and they're not going to spend much. I'm not saying they're overpaid, they're just not spending any money.

Some thoughts come to mind.

• Why would the White House want to post this? They actually think this makes Bush look good?
• Bush's dislike of the press is veiled by only the thinnest of margins. Note the quote "he thinks my job is to answer every question he asks." Well, yes, it is the President's job to answer the press' questions.
• The press seems more than willing to play along with Bush's games. They seem to tolerate it in pursuit of the allmighty ANSWER. Why do they even bother so much? The press should know by now that Bush's answers won't include anything substantive anyway. I can only assume they're hoping to goad him into a gaffe.