President in the No-Spin Zone

Missed the actual broadcast on Fox, so I watched the stream on Fox's website. And I think he did pretty well. I'd say almost remarkably well. He shows optimism, he's encouraging. He tried and tried to keep from getting nailed down on Iran, but when O'Reilley finally put the screws to him, he didn't back down.

O’REILLY: Is it conceivable that you would allow them to develop a nuclear weapon?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Uh, no, we’ve made it clear, our position is that they won’t [sic] have a nuclear weapon.

O’REILLY: Period.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah.

Bush's ideas on border control and illegal immigrants may not be popular, and O'Reilly (bless his cold, cold heart) pointed that out. And he defended his answer as truthful. It's a real 'this is what we will do, and this is what we will not do' kind of a response.

I almost hesitate to write this, because I know there are going to be a lot of people out there who will think that this is incredibly naive.

I think that George W. Bush is less about politics, and more about leadership.

There you go. Hack away. Oh, sure. Politics happens. He's got people who do politics. Or he's insanely good at it, such that you can't tell when he's doing it to you. But I think I'd stand by that. A leader has principles, not positions. A leader takes charge, and takes responsibility. A leader stays upbeat - optimistic. Bush came straight out and said that they have no idea what happened to WMD in Iraq. He didn't lay blame. He didn't point fingers. He just said flat out "No. I don't [know what happened to Saddam's chemical arsenal]". Maybe this is more naivete, but I can't imagine the Democratic candidate saying anything even remotely similar. At least not without caveats, finger-pointing and nuance by the triple heaping.