The fine art of questioning Bush

By Mike Allen
The Washington Post

Among those who occasionally get a chance to ask President Bush a question at a news conference are David Sanger, left, of The New York Times; Terry Moran, center, of ABC News; and John Roberts of CBS News.

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WASHINGTON — President Bush and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe were dripping with sweat as they took questions from reporters at the end of Bush's four-hour visit last week to Cartagena.

Bush, following his usual practice when he appears with a foreign leader, was holding what is billed as a news conference. In reality, it was what the White House calls a "two and two" — two questions from the White House press corps, and two from the reporters following the other head of state.

American reporters had plenty of topics from which to choose: Iran and Iraq, Ukraine and North Korea, intelligence reform and the dollar. David Morgan of Reuters used one of the two precious openings to ask Bush about a sideshow: tensions between the Secret Service and local authorities during Bush's visit to Chile, where he had spent the previous three nights and at one point had retrieved one of his Secret Service agents from a brawl with Chilean security.

"Why do you think there was such friction between the U.S. delegation and the Chilean delegation?" Morgan asked.

By the standards that the White House press pack uses to gauge a deft question, this one failed roundly: It was about yesterday's news, Bush was unlikely to answer it with specificity, and it wouldn't "make news" (produce a headline) if he did.

In the networks' nearby transmission room, out of Bush's earshot, correspondents and producers groaned loudly and grunted their disapproval.

"This is a question?" Bush replied. Now, the audience in the network work space was laughing. (Morgan did not reply to three e-mails over four days seeking his comments.) Bush said he had a spectacular visit and "appreciated the hospitality of our Chilean friends." He then left the stage.

The exchange — and the unforgiving reaction of a press corps that tends to be more collegial than cutthroat — exposed one of the dark arts of covering a prickly president who has held the fewest formal news conferences of any president beginning with Eisenhower and prides himself on his ability to stay on message.

White House reporters can go months, even years, without having a chance to ask Bush a question.

News conferences are a contest between Bush's desire to repeat his previously articulated views ("sticking a tape in the VCR," as one frequent Bush questioner puts it), and the reporters' quest to elicit something that will contribute to democracy, not to mention getting them on television or the front page.

Luring a response

"Bush, like most skilled politicians, will tend to answer the way he wants, no matter what the question," said Dana Bash of CNN. "The hardest thing is to ask the question in a way he can't do that. One way is to ask him something with an edge, or something that will make him want to respond."

Reporters save up questions and seek ideas from their bosses and even from competitors. They edit the wording, trying to cut off escape hatches the president might run for. Rules of thumb are adopted: A question with hostile wording, according to many on the Bush watch, has a zero percent chance of eliciting news from this president because he erects defenses and moves on.

Terry Moran of ABC News sounds like a football player trying to psych out an opponent. "Don't let yourself be intimidated. Don't let yourself be charmed," Moran said. "Bush likes to try to do both. Just remember that he is a public servant, and part of his job is to take your questions."

Moran elicited one of the more memorable unscripted quotations of Bush's first term during an April 2002 photo opportunity when the president was discussing Middle East peace with Secretary of State Colin Powell. "Mr. President, you said progress has been made toward our vision," Moran said. "Where? And secondly, do you believe that Ariel Sharon is a man of peace, and are you satisfied with his and his government's assurances that there was no massacre in Jenin?"

"I do believe Ariel Sharon is a man of peace," Bush replied, making headlines around the world.

Moran says he finds that "focused, forceful and direct questions work best with Bush — the shorter the better."

"He responds sharply to sharp challenges. He gives better answers to fact-based queries than to open-ended invitations to muse or reflect on events or policies. And sometimes, his Texan habit of answering direct questions quickly and directly leads him to make news inadvertently."

Pregame prep

The White House does a pregame preparation, and one aide said Bush's staff often prepares for "a Sanger question." That would be David Sanger, a national-security specialist and White House correspondent for The New York Times, who says it's "most productive to ask about something that's not directly on the news of the day."

"Otherwise," he said, "no matter what the question is, you're likely to hear another version of the message of the day. So if the headlines are full of Iraq, ask about Social Security or North Korea or something that Vladimir Putin said about the Ukraine. ... The biggest challenge is getting the president to reflect on choices that he has made, explore alternative paths he might have taken, or illuminate how he came to a decision."

CNN's John King said a rookie mistake is to ask convoluted questions, allowing Bush to answer only the part he wants to.

Every now and then, though, the press has its day. The master is John Dickerson of Time magazine, who has knocked Bush off script so many times that colleagues have coined a term for cleverly worded, seemingly harmless, but incisive questions: "Dickersonian."

Yet Dickerson's charm has preserved his status as one of the few reporters whom Bush and his staff actually like, so he keeps getting called on. He once asked Bush whether Muslims worship the same Almighty as Christians. (Bush said they did, prompting a stir among evangelicals.)

Two summers ago, Dickerson asked Bush his view of homosexuality, leading into it by noting that many of his supporters believe it is immoral. ("Yes. I am mindful that we are all sinners," Bush began, going on to make news by saying he had lawyers looking into a way to codify the sanctity of marriage, the prelude to his endorsement of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.)

In April, Dickerson asked one of the most famous questions of Bush's presidency: "In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you'd made in your life, and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa. You've looked back before 9/11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have you learned from it?"

Bush struggled to improvise, then said he could not think of a mistake he had made, providing months of fodder for critics.

One correspondent who doesn't buy the widespread theory that deference is key is John Roberts of CBS News. He once was so persistent in asking Bush why he took the nation to war in Iraq based upon what Roberts called "sometimes flimsy or, some people have complained, nonexistent evidence" that Bush scolded sharply: "Hold on for a second. You're through, John."

Roberts said Bush "has worked very hard to create an atmosphere of 'protocol' around all of his events" and uses stern looks to shoot down questions he doesn't want to take.

"It's all part of the message-control regime at the White House, but it's not something the White House press corps should roll over and play dead for."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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