Your President is rightly pleased with himself for blazing the trail when it comes to celebrating the fruits of the new internet technologies. He hosted a trail-blazing group at the White House last week. And crowed to them about the trail-blazing nature of this historic group oral-fest:

Bush told the group that, to his knowledge, it was the first time a president had met with bloggers for a chat at the White House, one of the participants wrote. The blogs represented at the meeting are generally pro-Bush and pro-military, and the ensuing reports were highly sympathetic to the president.

“At this meeting President Bush came off as more comfortable with the message than I’ve seen him appear on TV or in speeches,” wrote (Ward Carroll), a journalist and former Navy pilot. “No deer-in-the-headlights stuff here. Truly unwavering and passionate. Facts on the ground notwithstanding, he believes the United States can win the Iraq War. And to be honest, being around him made me believe it at that moment too.”

But only for the moment, huh? And this is the reaction of one of the ten handpicked friendly bloggers? Should really have invited them to live-blog, Georgie. (And shot them all, as they were leaving.)

What is most disappointing is the take of WaPo‘s Michael Abramowitz on Carroll’s statement. Hard to believe that he didn’t point out that Bush can’t even find 10 friendly bloggers who can believe him on Iraq for more than a moment. Adding insult to injury, Carroll’s comment is what he quotes as he writes with a straight face that “the ensuing reports were highly sympathetic to the president”.

But I guess Abramowitz is just positioning himself to be invited next time.

And given Abramowitz’s recent history, I imagine the White House has already had him fitted for a set of Oral Office kneepads. Here’s are some of his other on-his-knees performances from just this month:

September 16, 2007: describes Mukasey’s nomination as an appointment; that’s taking the theory of the unitary executive well beyond what even Prick Cheney is willing to do in public.

September 9, 2007: lends his name to a puff-piece about how “Bush has gained strength on Iraq over the past few months”

September 8, 2007: publishes puff-piece with the headline “Bush Moves to Put Himself in a Position For Troop Drawdown“, to celebrate Bush’s brave decision to bring home the troops he has no choice but to bring home.

Way to go, Michael Abramowitz! Keep that flag flying high!