Presidential Press Conference, April 13, 2004
President Bush: John.
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President … What would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have you learned from it?
Bush: Hmm. I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time, so I could plan for it. … You know, I just, uh, I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn’t yet. .. I, uh, hope I — I don’t want to sound like I’ve made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.
Now look at that for a moment — aside from the fact that the president is just too stupid to think on his feet, which frankly isn’t that surprising and something we could have guessed — notice that he points out that all questions for press conferences are usually submitted to him in writing, and he’s objecting that this one wasn’t.
No president has ever held a press conference that way before — no one. Only Bush asks for questions to be submitted ahead of time so he can prepare, or rather so Karl Rove can write the answers for him, because the man is too damned dumb to be able to figure out an answer on his own.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — it’s terrifying when I’m smarter than the President of the United States.