One way to think about the performances during these joint press appearances is to imagine whether the individuals are happy or regretful later that night. For instance, it’s pretty hard to imagine John Kerry anything other than jubilant after last week’s event. It’s pretty easy to imagine Our Only President angry. I expect Jim Lehrer was pleased. That’s an indicator of whether they think they achieved their goals.
I think all three participants in last night’s joint press appearance must be dissatisfied. They may blame themselves or the other participants, but I would guess any of the three would take the chance to do it again. Or, rather, to go back and erase that hour and a half and start over. However the cultural consensus comes down, nobody won this thing.
That said, it seems very strange to me that the response of left blogovia, and even worse of the Dem spokesthings, to Dick Cheney’s admission that Saddam Hussein was not involved in the attack on the World Trade Center is ‘but you said he was, or at least implied it, in such-and-such an interview which nobody watched except news junkies.’ Oh, who cares, boys. Your line is this: “Dick Cheney and the President are telling you now what we’ve been saying, and what they knew all along: Saddam Hussein was not involved in 9/11.” Then keep saying it until the 60% of registered Republicans stop telling pollsters they think he was. The point is not who lied about what happened, the point is what actually happened.
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-Vardibidian.