From: "Robert G Lewis" 

Well it was billed as a conversation not an interview.

To me the most interesting thing is how sloppy they were. I expect much
better stage management from the Bush Administration.

I found Scott McClellan to be quite amusing on the whole thing.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051013-2.html

"Mark"  wrote in message
news:434f2ab0$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> Why in the world you'd think any televised interview by anyone of anyone,
> would be anything but pre-planned for brevity and content is beyond me
> Rich. "Caught?" with the cameras running all along?
>
> But this is a most entertaining take on it:
>
> http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2005/10/ap_response_to.html
>
>
> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> news:434ee31b{at}w3.nls.net...
>> The Bushies get caught again
>>
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq_8
>>
>> WASHINGTON - It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the
>> questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were
>> choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote
>> on a new Iraqi constitution.
>>
>> "This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy
assistant defense
>> secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The
>> president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."
>>
>> Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall
>> security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote
>> and efforts to train Iraqi troops.
>>
>> As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's
>> 42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the
>> Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit - the birthplace of
>> former Iraqi leader     Saddam Hussein.
>>
>> "I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the
>> wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.
>>
>> A brief rehearsal ensued.
>>
>> "OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said.
"Captain Kennedy, you
>> answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"
>>
>> "Captain Smith," Kennedy said.
>>
>> "Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to
whom?" she asked.
>>
>> "Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.
>>
>> And so it went.
>>
>> "If the question comes up about partnering - how often do we train with
>> the Iraqi military - who does he go to?" Barber asked.
>>
>> "That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.
>>
>> "And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks
in Tikrit -
>> the hometown - and how they're handling the political process, who are we
>> going to give that to?" she asked.
>>
>> Before he took questions, Bush thanked the soldiers for serving and
>> reassured them that the U.S. would not pull out of Iraq until the mission
>> was complete.
>>
>> "So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're
>> never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total
>> victory," Bush said.
>>
>> The president told them twice that the American people were behind them.
>>
>> "You've got tremendous support here at home," Bush said.
>>
>> Less than 40 percent in an AP-Ipsos poll taken in October said they
>> approved of the way Bush was handling Iraq. Just over half of the public
>> now say the Iraq war was a mistake.
>>
>> White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday's event was
>> coordinated with the Defense Department but that the troops were
>> expressing their own thoughts. With satellite feeds, coordination often
>> is needed to overcome technological challenges, such as delays, he said.
>>
>> "I think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them
>> know what to expect," he said, adding that the president wanted to talk
>> with troops on the ground who have firsthand knowledge about the
>> situation.
>>
>> The soldiers all gave Bush an upbeat view of the situation.
>>
>> The president also got praise from the Iraqi soldier who was part of the
>> chat.
>>
>> "Thank you very much for everything," he gushed. "I
like you."
>>
>> On preparations for the vote, 1st Lt. Gregg Murphy of Tennessee said:
>> "Sir, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make this thing a
>> success. ... Back in January, when we were preparing for that election,
>> we had to lead the way. We set up the coordination, we made the plan.
>> We're really happy to see, during the preparation for this one, sir,
>> they're doing everything."
>>
>> On the training of Iraqi security forces, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo
>> from Scotia, N.Y., said to Bush: "I can tell you over the
past 10 months,
>> we've seen a tremendous increase in the capabilities and the confidences
>> of our Iraqi security force partners. ... Over the next month, we
>> anticipate seeing at least one-third of those Iraqi forces conducting
>> independent operations."
>>
>> Lombardo told the president that she was in New York City on Nov. 11,
>> 2001, when Bush attended an event recognizing soldiers for their recovery
>> and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. She said the troops began the fight
>> against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were
>> proud to continue it in Iraq.
>>
>> "I thought you looked familiar," Bush said, and then
joked: "I probably
>> look familiar to you, too."
>>
>> Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an
>> advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and     Afghanistan, denounced
>> the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt."
Five of the 10 U.S.
>> troops involved were officers, he said.
>>
>> "If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a
>> nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said.
"He needs to be
>> talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."
>>
>>
>>
>
>

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