dammit, 24 is preempted tonight because of the presidential press conference. now 24 is scheduled to air sunday night, which kind of screws up my sunday schedule (now i'll have to catch deadwood at a different time)

so i was about to start flipping the channels & ended up watching the pres for a few minutes. no wonder this guy doesn't hold regular press conferences: he's no good at it. i haven't been watching long but i've already noticed him do a terrible job avoiding a couple important questions.

obviously there's no transcript yet, but a few minutes ago someone (i think from nbc news) mentioned the common complaint that bush will never admit a mistake, & asked him flat out if he had made any (in regard to certain issues). this would've been a perfect attempt for bush to at least make some fluff comment about some little trifling mistake he made once. it wouldn't have to be of any substance, even a token admission of his humanity would've gone a long way. instead he just blabbed about how he had no way of knowing the terrorists would fly planes into buildings.

a few minutes later someone asked why the pres & vp will be testifying together for the 9/11 commission. he basically said "because they want to ask us questions". the questioner reiterated: no, why must you testify together rather than separately, & once again (though more flustered) his answer was "because we want to answer their questions."

ooh, a follow up about the mistake thing!!! the questioner flat out asks if he's made any mistakes since 9/11. first bush said he wished he would've received the question in writing beforehand. then he paused, then stumbled, then another long pause... "i'm sure historians looking back..." "something will come to me..." then he rambled on about saddam for a minute. the answer is no, bush could not think of a single mistake he's made since 9/11.

this is more like a really bad speech than a conference... it's like a speech with a bunch of awkward tangents. but it's definitely not the president answering questions.