Bush sat down with reporter Mike Allen yesterday for a Politico/Yahoo interview, billed as the first for a president talking to an online audience. Probably the biggest news in the discussion was Bush’s bizarre comment about giving up golf during the war “to be in solidarity” with grieving families.
I neglected, however, to read the entire transcript of the interview, and notice that the questions were kind of bizarre, too.
Dan Froomkin asked, “Has there ever been a more moronic interview of a president of the United States than the one conducted yesterday by Mike Allen?” After seeing that, I couldn’t imagine what would draw such a sharp rebuke. Allen, after all, was a White House correspondent for the Washington Post and Time magazine, so he presumably knows how to conduct an interview with the president that isn’t “moronic.”
So, I read the transcript. Froomkin has a point. The first seven questions — seven -- were about Jenna Bush’s wedding. Froomkin also pulled together this non-wedding-related list of Allen’s questions:
“Mr. President, I know you’re going to hate this, but I’m hoping that we may twist your arm and talk about baseball for just a moment. (Laughter.) Mr. President, you’re a Major League Baseball team owner again. Everyone is a free agent. You have a Yankees-like wallet. Who is your first position player? Who’s your pitcher?”
“Now, Mr. President, you and the First Lady appeared on American Idol’s charity show, ‘Idol Gives Back.’ And I wonder who do you think is going to win? Syesha, David Cook, or David Archuleta?”
“All right. Mr. President, who does the better impression, Will Ferrell of you, or Dana Carvey of your father?”
“And speaking of impressions, our friend, Robert Draper, author of ‘Dead Certain,’ said you do a great impression of Dr. Evil from ‘Austin Powers’.”
Allen also asked Bush, “Do you feel that you were misled on Iraq?” That’s not bad at all — except it was a question that came from a Politico reader.
