1115.org

From an interview with Irish TV:

Carole Coleman: But, Mr. President, the world is a more dangerous place today. I don’t know whether you can see that or not.
The President: Why do you say that?
Carole Coleman: There are terrorist bombings every single day. It’s now a daily event. It wasn’t like that two years ago.
The President: What was it like September the 11th, 2001? It was a — there was a relative calm, we –
Carole Coleman: But it’s your response to Iraq that’s considered –
The President: Let me finish. Let me finish, please. Please. You ask the questions and I’ll answer them, if you don’t mind.

Has the President been watching too many bad action movies?

Jason Statham is The Transporter:

“I ask the questions, you answer the questions.”

Movie flashbacks aside, this was another example of what passes for media relations in this administration. Coleman had to submit her questions three days in advance to give the communications staff time to write answers for the President to read.

Yet even with three days to prepare, groups of words like these still fall out of the President’s mouth at irregular intervals:

Carole Coleman: Is that something that really should start, though, with the solving of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis?
The President: Well, I think, first of all, you’ve got a democracy in Turkey. And you’ve got a democracy emerging in Afghanistan. You’ve got a democracy in Pakistan.

Someone get the State Department on the line, democracy has broken out in Afghanistan (where warlords run 95% of the country with profits from opium sales) and Pakistan (where a military strongman seized power in 1999 and has yet to hold free elections.)

And then:

Carole Coleman: And how do you see the handover going? The next few weeks are going to be crucial. Can democracy really flourish with the violence that’s going on? A hundred Iraqis dead today, Mr. President.

The President: I don’t like death, either. I mean, you keep emphasizing the death and I don’t blame you — but all that goes to show is the nature of the enemy. These people are willing to kill innocent people. They’re willing to slaughter innocent people to stop the advance of freedom. And so the free world has to make a choice: Do we cower in the face of terror, or do we lead in the face of terror?

So the terrorists are willing to kill innocent people to stop the advance of freedom, and the United States is willing to kill innocent people to advance freedom.

But the money shot (as usual) came in response to a question about religion:

Carole Coleman: Do you believe that the hand of God is guiding you in this war on terror?
The President: Listen, I think that God — that my relationship with God is a very personal relationship. And I turn to the good Lord for strength. And I turn to the good Lord for guidance. I turn to the good Lord for forgiveness. But the God I know is not one that — the God I know is one that promotes peace and freedom. But I get great sustenance from my personal relationship. That doesn’t make me think I’m a better person than you are, by the way. Because one of the great admonitions in the Good Book is, don’t try to take a speck out of your eye if I’ve got a log in my own.

His relationship with God is so personal that he talks about it at every opportunity, and doesn’t hesitate to quote scripture. Also, I’ve read the Bible. Can someone let him know that there’s better material in there than the old speck/log bit?

What was the result of this interview where Coleman dared ask tough questions and followed-up when the canned answers didn’t work? The White House pulled an interview she was supposed to do with First Apologist Laura Bush.

That’s klassy.