My extensive live coverage of President Bush’s April 29 press conference is below.

I plan to liveblog the press conference in this space. If you’re covering it on your site, feel free to advertise it via the inline trackbacks to this post.

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Interestingly, the White House had to negotiate an early start time to get the networks to cover this thing. Apparently, only ABC was going to carry it at its original 8:30 time slot so the White House agreed to an 8:01 start. Quite bizarre, and an indication of how much things have changed in recent years.

The opening statement is expected to last 10-12 minutes.

(2001): The president has arrived, wearing a dark suit and a red tie with tiny polka dots on it. Not a great tie, although no bizarre effects at least.

He starts talking about consumer protection from high gas prices. He wants to address root causes, a suspiciously leftist idea. 4 key steps: 1) better use technology to conserve energy, 2) innovative way to make better use of existing resources, 3) develop promising new sources of energy (including some not really new), and 4) help new overseas consumers be more efficient.

Congress needs to address Social Security. Worked fine in last century but math has changed. Fuzzy math? A new generation of Baby Boomers getting ready to retire–”I happen to be one of them.” Good line although not well delivered. Otherwise, a pretty solid, conversational explanation of how the demographics work.

FDR did a great thing creating the safety net but there’s now a hole in it. Seniors will get their checks! Duty to make permanently solvent but also to improve it by directing to those in most need and making better deal for young workers. Reformed system would guarantee current benefit levels, make more of a commitment to those less well off, etc.

Puts raising payroll tax rate off the table. Interesting.

Most replace empty promises with real assets. Give young OPTION–OPTION, damn it!–to save in a voluntary retirement account. That would be OPTIONAL and have a variety of OPTIONS. Including Treasury bonds, which are backed by full faith and credit of government (oddly, just like the current failed system).

Too important for politics as usual, can’t look at it through lens of partisan advantage. Democrats and Republicans should stand together and be proud to take credit for doing the right thing.
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(2011): Questions begin.

Q (Terry Hunt): Why is your leadership on this failing, you loser? A: It’s hard! We’re doing something hard here. It’s hard. (Apparently left over from the first debate, where it worked so well.)

Q: Inaudible. A: Presidents relying on polls and focus groups are like a dog chasing its tail.

Q: (Steve Holland): Why are we failing in Iraq, like Gen. Myers said? A: He didn’t say that, you idiot. Iraq is really hard. We’re winning. Democracy in the Middle East is new but taking hold and peace will eventually be the norm. Freedom is way to defeat terrorists. Going from tyranny to democracy is hard.

Q (David Gregory): Are judicial filibusters an attack on people of faith? And what do you think of faith and politics? A: No, they’re just opposing the judges based on philosophy. They like judges to legislate from the bench, I don’t. My guys deserve an up or down vote. A vote. They should get a vote. Religion is a personal matter and people ought be judged by how they live their life. Faith important in my life individually but I’m mindful that people in political office shouldn’t say someone is not equally American if not in agreement on faith. (Quite well handled.)

Q (John Roberts): How would energy bill effect current gas prices? A: Um, it wouldn’t, didn’t you listen to my opening statement? It was only 10 minutes, dude. The way to lower prices in the short term is to get excess capacity into the market. It’s going to take a while to solve the energy problem–it’s been a long time in coming. Longer term, we need nookular stuff and some liquid somethingoranother. We should have been working this ten years ago.

Q (Terry Moran): Why are more people dying in terrorist attacks than ever before? A: We’re engaging the terrorists head on abroad. That steps up their counter-attacks. But we’re making good progress. Al Qaeda greatly diminished. Spreading freedom and democracy the long term answer.

Funny line about TV journalists.

Q (Suzanne Malveaux): Something about Eastern Europe. A: Vladimir Putin loves democracy. (Wuh? Are we talking about the same guy?) Russia has agreed to send highly enriched uranium to Iraq, just for energy purposes, though. (Cuz they don’t have any energy there?) Putin is apparently going to personally collect the waste products to make sure they don’t make any weapons–and I appreciate that. I appreciate Vladimir.

Q (Wendall Goler): Is that John Bolton guy as mean as everyone says? A: Nah, he’s like a really seasoned diplomat and has been confirmed by the Senate four times before. Hell, I’m blunt, too, and I’m president. Speaking your mind is good, especially when talking to those dunderheads at the U.N. He and I both think the U.N. is important but really, really screwed up.

Q (Stretch): Would you take Social Security reform without the private accounts? A: No. Why shouldn’t everybody get to own stuff? Owning stuff is good. Nobody’s making anyone have an account, we’re just giving people the right. Did I mention this would be OPTIONAL?

Q (David with the green tie and bad haircut): When are we getting out of Iraq? A: When we’re done? Timetables don’t work because the enemy just adjusts. We’re making progress, though, in getting the Iraqi’s ready to go. GEN Petreaus is pleased with the progress, too, and he’s a general. We’ve also reduced our troop level a little bit.

Q (David, following up): Is Iraq making it hard to do other stuff? A: Gen. Myers doesn’t think so. We’ve got plenty of capacity in places like the Korean Peninshula, for example.

Q (Bush to himself): What about Korea? A: Kim Jong Il is a mean son of a gun who might have nukes. We’re bringing leverage there by including other countries. Diplomatically. And we’re also putting together a missile defense system just in case he does launch a missile.

Q (Ed Chen): Why is this town so partisan? Is it your fault? A: I don’t know. I’ve been disappointed in how much politics there is here. Zero sum. We did have some success on the ed bill and after 9/11. Tough issues divide people into camps. Name calling isn’t productive. The people wonder why we can’t come together and get stuff done.

Q (Bill Sammon): You came into town trying to bring people together. Is partisanship making it harder to get stuff done? A: Not really. We’re getting lots done.

Q (Mike Fletcher): Something about Korea and the five party talks vice bilateral negotiations. A: Bringing the five countries together is the only way to get it done. Especially China, which has a Security Council veto. We need to isolate KJI when he’s bad.

Q (Mark Knoller): Doesn’t rendition suck? A: The US Government has an obligation to protect the American people and will do so within the law. We expect countries we send people to not to torture them. But we’re at war, you know?

Q (John McKinnon): The economy sucks, doesn’t it? A: Well, I wish things were better, especially gas prices. But most of the forecasts are good. We need legal reform, asbestos reform, and some other things to incentivize growth.

Q (Richard the old guy): Is No Child Left Behind Working? A: Yep. We’re measuring it and kids now know how to read and do math. Plus, they can do math and read and write. Plus, we’re measuring. Which is good. People should be able to read when they graduate high school–which they couldn’t before.

Q (Oliver Knox): Reasks Mike’s question on North Korea. A: Same as I told Mike. Other parties important. KJI having nukes bad.

Joke about not wanting to cut into the TV schedule for the sake of the economy.

Q (Hutch): How much means testing for Social Security? A: That’s gotta be negotiated still. It’s just a principle right now to make sure that people at the bottom get taken care of even if the wealthy don’t get quite as much back. We need to make sure nobody retires into poverty after paying into the system all their life. We also need to take care of people in cases where the spouse dies early, who we’re now screwing over.
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Overall, despite my tongue-in-cheek transcription, I thought he did a mediocre job with the opening statement but was quite good with the answers. He was quite conversational and at ease in the latter. For the most part, his answers were substantive and understandable.

Brit Hume notes that the “hard news” of the night was the discussion about means testing. Kevin Drum is right that there wasn’t a lot new overall, and certainly nothing that needed an hour in prime time. But, of course, most people don’t follow things like the political junkies who read and write blogs. A lot of those watching probably got a lot out of this. Of course, those who are least informed are least likely to watch given the choices available.

Fred Barnes is right, too, that the president probably didn’t get much done in terms of changing congressional votes. Mort Kondracke thought Bush was too light in his touch against the Democrats. Maybe so, although I think that plays well to the viewing public, who is his real audience. As I’ve said before, I think Bush has likely already lost this debate. If he has any chance, though, it’s to get the people mobilized and writing their congressmen. My guess is that didn’t happen, but tonight’s performance was as much as he could have done given his skill set and the fact that the game is almost over.
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Well, that’s my take for now. Perhaps more in the morning. Lots of others will have commentary. See the trackbacks below for a starting point.

Update (4-29): The White House transcript: Press Conference of the President

Joe Gandleman has an excellent roundup of the blogospheric reaction, Left, Right, and otherwise.

I’ve finally gotten around to downloading the rest of my photos from CPAC, including this one from Michelle Malkin’s book signing:

Kevin Aylward introduced me to Michelle’s husband, who was tending their two children while she was signing the books and then I met Michelle afterwards. She posed for lots of pictures and was very sweet despite feeling very under the weather with the nasty flu bug that seems to be going around these parts.

Kevin McCullough, LaShawn Barber, Wes Roth, Bryan Preston, Jennifer Biddison, and Matt Margolis also do Malkin blogging from the convention. Most of their photos are better; for some reason, most of my CPAC pictures didn’t turn out well, despite a Nikon CoolPix 995 that’s served me well in other settings.

Michelle’s CPAC wrap-up is here.

Mike Krempasky calls out his fellow CPAC bloggers who are no-shows this morning. I’ve managed to escape his wrath so far, but also decided against making the long trek back to DC, since an appearance by Newt Gingrich was the only highlight, my cough is back with a vengeance, and I was out until 1 this morning with Mike, Sean, Erick-Woods, Cam, and Jim.

Click the button above for the feeds of all the CPAC bloggers.

I just finished a 10-15 minute segment with Cam Edwards on NRA News along with Sean Hackbarth and Jim Geraghy of TKS (formerly The Kerry Spot). Audio feed is available at NRA News.

Over at radio row, there was a row between Michael Medved and Al Franken. Swift Boat leader John O’Neill was scheduled to be on Medved’s show as was Franken. Apparently, Franken was not expecting Oneil to be there and was apoplectic over having been set up to debate him without preparation, and refused to do so. Franken said he considers O’Neill to be “a disgrace” and that just being that close to him (maybe seven feet) was enough to make him angry. Medved explained that it was not his intention to set Franken up but that the situation in such a forum was “fluid” and, one gathers, having the opportunity to have O’Neill on was one too good to pass up.

Michael Medved and Al Franken

Amusingly, Oneil seemed oblivious to the whole thing, working on his notes the entire time:

John O’Neill

See also: Sean Hackbarth and Radley Balko

Update (2-19): Robert Cox has more photographs and is hosting a video of the exchange.

***OTB Exclusive. Must Cite OTB ***

Wonkette, one of the credentialled bloggers at CPAC, has yet to be spotted in Blogger’s Corner. Regardless, she’s here and commenting on the fact that some of the bloggers at CPAC are commenting on the women at CPAC.

Should there be a Wonkette sighting, be sure the bloggers with cameras will be out in force hoping to catch a glimpse. The combination of Wonkette, Michelle Malkin, and Ann Coulter would be especially worth catching.

Ann Coulter has just started speaking. She’s attracting a lot of attention from convention goers ready for some red meat. (I’m watching via closed-circuit so that I can live blog, so no photos.)

Not shockingly, her speech so far has been a collection of one-liners, mostly around gay marriage and Hollywood elites, including something to the effect that “Nuts are the entirety of the Democratic Party.”

“Barbara Boxer is a great candidate for the Democratic Party: female and learning disabled.”

More Kennedy jokes. They think he’s middle-of-the-road. “Didn’t he have trouble once sticking to the middle of the road?”

“David Duke can’t speak at American universities, neither should Ward Churchill.”

“We have a lot further to go in the censhorship department in a country that allows Will & Grace on television.”

She ends her speech by renewing her call for a New McCarthyism, saying any “equivocation” on the terror issue is ” beyond the bounds of rational discourse.”

She just brought Matt Drudge out to help her answer questions, to great applause.

She got some sort of gender-based question from a student and answers that “Their glands prevent [males] from becoming Democrats.”

I thought Drudge broke some news about David Geffen eating Hillary Clinton last night in New York. Apparently, though, he merely said that she’d make a poor presidential candidate. (Update: Drudge has the story on his site)

Radley Balko, blogging this next to me, dubs her MoDoCon (the conservative Maureen Dowd).

It’s very much a contest right now as to who is more annoying: Coulter or the people feeding her these idiotic questions. I’m leaning toward the latter.

Oddly, the woman who calls everyone who disagrees with her on international affairs a “traitor” and idiotic comments by college professors “treason,” is a big supporter of the Confederate flag. Even divorced from its civil rights era racial connotations, the flag represents treason against the Union in the most literal sense.

The book signing featuring former Georgia Senator and Governor Zell Miller and retired Marine Lt.Col. Ollie North has had easily the longest non-security related line I’ve seen at CPAC. Miller, obviously, is the bigger draw these days.

Lt.Col. Ollie North and Sen. Zell Miller sign books at CPAC 2005

This poor fellow has the most confusing name at CPAC: Michael W. Moore. So, he’s got the middle initial of the president and the first and last names of one of his more loathesome critics.

NRA Radio’s Cam Edwards and Michael W. Moore

Michael W. Moore

Michelle Malkin who, like me, is fighting the flu, is going to be at CPAC this afternoon for a book signing. Had I known, I’d have brought my copy of her book.

I’ll try to make it to her chat and say hello.

Well, Day 1 of CPAC 2005 is in the books.

The banquet, which featured Vice President Dick Cheney as the before-dinner speaker, was interesting. I’ve always liked Cheney, in much the same way as Rumsfeld, simply because they’re rather curmudgeonly and are sufficiently liberated by not having ambitions beyond their present position to more-or-less speak their mind. The veep didn’t say anything particularly surprising, except that an intended joke line that we had more people in the income tax preparation business than we have in the United States Army fell flat. Cheney got a laugh when he deadpanned “hey, that was a pretty good line!” when he failed to get the anticipated reaction the first time. Of course, unintentionally reminding people that the Army might oughta be a little bigger right about now is not necessarily the best fodder for humor.

Overall, though, Cheney was amusing and charming. His tributes to two soldiers, one a 39-year-old NYC firefighter who raised the flag after 9/11 only to die last month with his Army National Guard unit in Baghdad and the other a young immigrant from Haiti who died recently from terrorist activity, were especially compelling.

Still, my reaction to the dinner festivities was much like my reaction to the first day overall. There were a lot of high-powered speakers who had a lot to say but, for whatever reason, didn’t say it. While I’ve been bored at plenty of academic conferences, I’ve generally found them much more engaging than these type of events.

Partly, this is just a function of my natural grumpiness combined with being enough of a political junkie that it’s hard to say anything I haven’t heard–hell, blogged–before. But I expect there’s more to it. Washington policy insiders spend so much time delivering their boilerplate to the media and various other venues that they’re simply unused to speaking their minds. Still, giving what amounts to warmed-over campaign speeches at a forum where the audience is almost definitionally already on your side is dull at best, condescending at worst.

I suspect I’d have had a better time at a liberal version of this–say, a MoveOn.org convention. At least there, the speakers would rant and rave about the Bush Administration and say things to generate controversy.

See CPAC Bloggers for the reactions of other bloggers with credentials to the convention.

Some photographs of the bloggers at CPAC:

LaShawn Barber of LaShawn Barber’s Corner

Julian Sanchez of Reason and Notes from the Lounge

Cam Edwards of Cam Edwards and NRA Radio

Robin Burke of Winds of Change

Kevin Aylward of Wizbang

While lunching with Julian Sanchez (Reason and Notes from the Lounge) and Robin Burke (West Point and Winds of Change), I managed to completely forget about my radio engagement!

Kevin was very nice about the whole thing and fit me back in a few moments ago and we chatted for several minutes. It was different–and much more enjoyable–doing a radio show in person vice over the telephone.

We talked quite a bit about the nature of accountability in the blogosphere and our role in informing the public.

Kevin also asked whether I would favor a requirement to pass a basic test on the candidates to be allowed to vote. While I find the idea amusing and satisfying at one level, I rejected it as a matter of policy. While the voters are mostly rather clueless on the issues, I continue to believe they are able to make “informed” decisions on candidates via a lot of proxy measures like parties, talk radio personalities, and the like.

Listen to the show via digital audio stream if you’re interested.

Update (1641): Kevin’s off the air and has compiled his roundup at his blog. He has links to the segments of every blogger who was on today.

James Joyner, OTB

G. Gordon Liddy and Al Franken are doing a joint broadcast of their shows today. Surprisingly, given the few clips I’ve heard of Franken’s show and not-at-all surprisingly having heard hours of Liddy’s show, the interaction has been quite congenial. Political discussion with actual, intelligent dialogue is an interesting concept. One wonders if it will ever catch on.

Donaldson and Novak have both been congenial but neither has said anything particularly noteworthy.

It’s rather overcrowded, though, and the sound projection is remarkably poor. It doesn’t help that some yahoo is blaring country and western music rather loudly.

It’s going to take a while to figure out how to actually manage this. Live blogging doesn’t seem feasible given the poor accomodations, so I’ll likely just record impressions as I can.

So far, the highlight has been meeting the other bloggers here, including Mike Krempasky, Kevin Alyward, Sean Hackbarth, and LaShawn Barber.