WP, Mike Allen: Bush isolation from people, press, now almost total

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush's Isolation From Reporters Could Be a Hindrance
Some Presidential Advisers Worry That He Could Pay Price During Debates for Being Overprotected

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 8, 2004; Page A09

....Bush has granted three interviews in the past five weeks, to conservative Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader and WMUR-TV in New Hampshire....The president has stopped taking questions from the small pool of reporters who cover his photo opportunities, and he has answered questions from the White House press corps twice since Aug. 23, both times with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi at his side. His last prime-time news conference was April 13.

The tradition of the White House news corps shouting questions at the president has largely faded during this term because Bush reacts testily and does not answer, and his staff typically sets up events so he does not have to walk near reporters....

***

Although all presidents are kept somewhat removed from reality because of security concerns and their staffs' impulse for burnishing their image, Bush's campaign has taken unprecedented steps to shield him from dissenters and even from curious, undecided voters. On the way to the forum outside Cleveland, the media buses that went ahead of Bush were temporarily marooned in a church parking lot because police had been told to divert all buses since they could contain demonstrators.

Bush's handlers have pulled the presidential bubble especially tight during the campaign, but he often has kept his distance from the public and the media throughout his term. He rarely plays tourist on trips, and has held the fewest solo news conferences of any president since records were kept....

***

Bush used to frequently talk to small groups of local reporters as his campaign bus rolled through their state, although such roundtables have tailed off....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16131-2004Oct7.html?sub=AR

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. The longer Saddam is in jail.... the more peaceful things are

getting around the globe.... or at least that is the way shrub tells it. Grand diversion? You bet.

[salvorhardin]

2. crucial speech

I thought Bush was supposed to deliver a "crucial speech" this week?

[Kierkegaard]

3. Gee, ya think?

Hindrance? My God, hasn't news of the first debate reached them yet? Haven't they been on this planet for the last 4 years?

Reporters in a bubble.

[amber dog democrat]

4. now its a no-win scenereo

unbelievable that he has to hide from all but dedicated and loyal supporters.
I think he is in for unpleasant surpirses every where he goes now and hes acting as if he is a dictator of a banana republic.

I wonder if he had food tasters too. I would love to hear the conversations going on in the Chimp Bunker these days.

[July]

5. Didn't register, have a question.

Any mention of how Bush has shut out the people from the people's house (the White House) since the beginning of his term? BEFORE 9/11, holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July were turned into invitation-only events, whereas in the past we ordinary people could participate.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Allen does not address that in the article --

[July]

7. Thanks, DMM. nt

[bushwakker]

8. I hate the man

i hope he is beaten by kerry and then jailed.

[farmbo]

9. New meme: Bush is the "Bubble Boy"

...and, as in that famous Seinfeld episode, he's a self-centered, arrogant, and obnoxious Bubble Boy.

[Supersedeas]

10. *'s refusal to take questions about WMD report was classic, analogous to

Delay not taking questions about the conclusions of the Ethics Panel.

Bush/Cheney say the report further bolsters justification for the invasion.

Delay claims the Ethics panel exonerated and dismissed the frivolous claims.


And the Network Media broadcasts Up is Down, Black is White, and
2+2 now equals 5