G. W. Bush has trouble meeting with the press. He resents their endless inquisitiveness and all those questions they ask! The president feels the press likes to make him look a bit silly. He thinks the press likes to make him nervous on purpose, and when he stumbles over a few words - the reporters don't give him a break. They go right on and ask him even more pointed questions and they talk so fast that he becomes ill at ease. And then, all of a sudden, poor Bush is just standing there, at his podium, looking like he doesn't realize where he is or even who he is. So there is a definite problem.

I remember the troubles Nixon used to have with the press. He treated the press as his enemy and he glowered menacingly at White House reporters as he said, "You won't have me to kick around anymore." Oh dear, it was embarrassing to watch on TV. And the press didn't get along with him either. Reporters said Nixon was insufferable, negative, devious, lacking in any human warmth or sense of sociability. He couldn’t be personable. He couldn’t be charming (to reporters). He just wasn’t very much fun at all really.

On the other hand, Bush is always the happy cowboy from Crawford, Texas, just the congenial guy next door who is glad to see everyone, even reporters. He just won't answer a lot of questions. He doesn’t hold too many press conferences. Among other things, he's afraid he'll be asked about flag-draped coffins coming back from Iraq, calling attention to the mounting number of casualties in a battle he said was over for "major combat operations.” That was a year ago, last May l, 2003, when he proclaimed that, on his “mission accomplished” day. This reporter would like to ask him a few questions about that.