The Public Relations President

Even when Bush is in his public relations mode, he isn't exactly at his best these days. Here's an excerpt from Dana Milbank of The Washington Post:

There was trouble from the first question at yesterday's news conference by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The AP's Tom Raum had just asked a question about the violence in Iraq, and Bush looked down to gather his thoughts before turning to Maliki. "I'll start," the president said.

"Na'am," said Maliki, using the Arabic word for "yes."

"Okay, you start," Bush offered, evidently thinking Maliki had said "no."

"Na'am," Maliki said again.

"You want to start? Go ahead," the perplexed president pressed. Bush had by now put the interpretation device in his ear, an end to the who-goes-first game.

"Na'am," Maliki repeated. "Na'am."

I suspect Bush misses Condi Rice; she wasn't there with hand signals and grimaces to guide the president. One assumes Stephen Hadley or someone else would have stepped in beforehand to brief the president. Perhaps the Decider-in-Chief once again didn't bother to pay close attention.

Here's more from Milbank's column:

"Obviously, the violence in Baghdad is still terrible, and, therefore, there needs to be more troops," allowed the usually upbeat Bush.

Three years and six months too late, the president quietly slips in the obvious. We're long past the point where Bush's observation is relevant. But Milbank is not done:

The two men were more in accord on the Iraq violence. They both believe that problems there should be called "challenges."

"The prime minister understands he's got challenges," Bush said. He also acknowledged that "we still face challenges in Baghdad."

Ah, at last we see Bush's accomplishment of the day. Problems have been turned into 'challenges.' The public relations president is clearly making his mark.