Some strategy

Once again I find myself in disagreement with the conclusions of the Washington Post.

As he takes to the road to salvage his presidency, Bush is letting down his guard and playing up his anti-intellectual, regular-guy image. Where he spent last year in rehearsed forums with select supporters, these days he is more frequently throwing aside the script and opening himself to questions from audiences that are not prescreened. These sessions have put a sometimes playful, sometimes awkward side back on display after years of trying to keep it under control to appear more presidential.

Call it the let-Bush-be-Bush strategy. The result is a looser president, less serious at times, even at times when humor might seem out of place. Aides used to dread such settings, worried about gaffes or the way Bush might come across in spontaneous exchanges. But with his poll numbers somewhere south of the border, they concluded that Bush handles back-and-forth better than he once did -- and that they have little left to lose.

"It shows the range of his personality, the humor," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett.

Trouble is, it also often shows him as fumbling and slow to come up with solid answers, apparently struggling to stick to his talking points. And his inappropriate use of humor and casual attitude about serious issues show him as, at best, out of touch and, at worst, inhumane.

I see this as less of a strategy and more of a surrender. "What the fuck? What we've been doing obviously isn't working. We're at 33 percent. How much worse can it get?" seems more likely to me than, "I know, let's take this guy who can't think on his feet and mangles sentences and expose him to unscreened questions from an unscreened audience at the exact moment that his approval ratings are at their lowest."

I mean, do you really think exchanges like this are helping Bush?