I am watching the President's press conference right now, and am compelled to make a few observations:
1. I can clearly see why he only does this when necessary.
2. Seriously, I hate the faces he makes. He smiles awkwardly at inappropriate times. If the sound were off, I'd think I was watching an Adam Sandler impressionist.
3. He knows every reporters name, and even their nicknames ("stretch, you mind if I call you that?"). Isn't it great that the same small group of citizens are the only people given the opportunity to question authority? That's really what sparked the need to express my disgust. "Stretch" is the man asking the tough questions. They ask the same soft questions and get the same sound bytes ("we're fighting them abroad so we don't have to fight them here at home"). I know he's trying to show his affability, but all I think is that he keeps serving the same bull shit to the same ass kissers.
4. He just said "penishula."
5. No wonder no one pays attention to politics. Is the O.C. on?

NY Times Op-Ed:Paul Krugman: "According to John Snow, the Treasury secretary, the global economy is in a 'sweet spot.' Conservative pundits close to the administration talk, without irony, about a 'Bush boom.'
Yet two-thirds of Americans polled by Gallup say that the economy is 'only fair' or 'poor.' And only 33 percent of those polled believe the economy is improving, while 59 percent think it's getting worse.
Is the administration's obliviousness to the public's economic anxiety just partisanship? I don't think so: President Bush and other Republican leaders honestly think that we're living in the best of times. After all, everyone they talk to says so.
Since November's election, the victors have managed to be on the wrong side of public opinion on one issue after another: the economy, Social Security privatization, Terri Schiavo, Tom DeLay. By large margins, Americans say that the country is headed in the wrong direction, and Mr. Bush is the least popular second-term president on record.
What's going on? Actually, it's quite simple: Mr. Bush and his party talk only to their base - corporate interests and the religious right - and are oblivious to everyone else's concerns."

NY Times Op-Ed Column: "The release of a report in The Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that overweight people actually live longer than normal-weight people represents an important moment in the history of world civilization. It is the moment when we realize that Mother Nature - unlike Ivy League admissions committees - doesn't like suck-ups."