Tim: Sure, one interview isn’t going to make or break George W. Bush. He

really should have done better, though.

I have boasted in my columns about the occasional privilege I have of going

to the Metropolitan Opera with Jay Nordlinger. Jay, a professional music

critic, tells me exactly what everybody is doing wrong. “The conductor is

taking it too slowly… The soprano lost time in that passage… The

woodwinds are overbearing…” I sometimes enter a mild protest: “Jay,

please don’t be so hyper-critical. I’m having fun here.” To which Jay

replies, correctly: “Look–this the Metropolitan Opera. This is the

premier opera house in the USA. Orchestra seats cost almost two hundred

bucks. This should be the best, the VERY VERY BEST. All criticism is

justified!”

Same with GWB. He is the head of the executive branch of our government,

which we support to the tune of several hundred billion dollars a year. In

time of war, which this is, he is responsible for decisions of tremendous –

possibly fatal — import for the rest of us, and for the Republic. If he

can’t make a better impression on people like me, who support him and wish

him well, it is a sorry state of affairs. Listen to one of my readers –

one of many expressing similar sentiments:

“I can accept a bit of a lack of eloquence, but I expect the man that I have

been defending to the hilt for the past few years despite all of my

misgivings with his other policies to be a bit more prepared. In fact, I

think it is perfectly reasonable for all of us to expect Bush to hit every

question out of the park. He has had a year and a half to shore up his

answers to every possible question. He’s even had a few months of the

knowledge that we were likely to find no WMD. Instead, he seemed almost

frightened by each coming question.

“Dare I say, from a performance perspective, high school seniors do better

in college entrance interviews (or college seniors in job interviews) at

handling their nerves and mustering answers in Q&A that almost certainly

haven’t been rehearsed to the extent that President Bush gets to deliver

much-practiced salvos every single day.”

I agree. I certainly hope my kids do better in their college-entrance

interviews than Bush did with Tim Russert. I shall be disappointed in them

if they don’t.