An e-mail from Griffith, Indiana:

Regarding your latest post. Yes, it is good that Vice President Cheney did an interview today but I’m not sure that doing it any earlier would have done much good. By Monday afternoon, the focus had shifted to the media reaction rather than the accident itself. The “mystery that fed the frenzy” was an amusing example of the press corps’ exaggerated opinion of their own importance. It probably wasn’t by design, but I think the delay served the administration well in the eyes of “normal” people by highlighting the childish nature of so much of the media.
A final comment. I’m not sure this was ever much of a “legitimate news story.” I live in a very blue corner of a red state and come into daily contact with yellow-dog democrats who almost all considered the story a non-issue. If these folks passed up the chance to bash the administration, it just can’t be very important to most Americans.