Is this any way to talk to a president?

Posted at 12:41 PM on July 13, 2007 by Bob Collins

During the Watergate scandal, Dan Rather, then a White House correspondent, was very nearly fired for a confrontation with President Nixon, who had asked Rather if he was "running for something?" "No sir, are you?" Rather replied.

Watching the news conference by President Bush yesterday, it was hard not to think of those times when this question was asked:

When you heard that, since that point, you think of how many hundreds of soldiers have been killed, how much money has been spent. Why shouldn't people conclude that you are either stubborn, in denial, but certainly not realistic about the strategy that you've pursued since then?

Or to put it only slightly differently... "Mr. President, are you freakin' nuts?"

And, as always, the first question went to Helen Thomas:

Mr. President, you started this war, a war of your choosing, and you can end it alone, today, at this point -- bring in peacekeepers, U.N. peacekeepers. Two million Iraqis have fled their country as refugees. Two million more are displaced. Thousands and thousands are dead. Don't you understand, you brought the al Qaeda into Iraq.

And, finally, Wendell Goler of FoxNews:

Thank you, sir. You have spoken passionately about the consequences of failure in Iraq. Your critics say you failed to send enough troops there at the start, failed to keep al Qaeda from stepping into the void created by the collapse of Saddam's army, failed to put enough pressure on Iraq's government to make the political reconciliation necessary to keep the sectarian violence the country is suffering from now from occurring. So why should the American people feel you have the vision for victory in Iraq, sir?

Wondering what Annie Leibovitz would be like as a White House correspondent...

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