That said, President Bush's first formal press conference in office must be seen as an utter failure in achieving the president's No. 1 goal: appearing calm and in command. This has nothing to do with the issues. Honestly, this criticism isn't over his budget. It's not about his argument that surplus funds should be given back to all of those who pay taxes, roughly in proportion to how much of a hard-earned paycheck is already forked over to the ever-growing government. Bomb Iraq? Sure, why not. It doesn't seem to be part of a well-thought-out policy, but that certainly didn't begin with this president.

The truth is, this guy seems to be coasting. Based on comments he made to Democratic members of Congress at their retreat a few weekends ago, as first reported by conservative columnist Robert Novak, Bush doesn't seem to understand the controversy over whether the U.S. Census should use statistical sampling. Then there were his comments at a White House meeting, accidentally piped into the press room on Jan. 31, and reported by the Washington Post, when Bush referred to his executive order restoring a ban on U.S. aid to overseas groups that offer abortion services and abortion counseling (known as "the Mexico City" policy since it was introduced by President Reagan there in 1984) as "the money from Mexico, you know, that thing, the executive order I signed about Mexico City."

Thursday's press conference did nothing to erase the impression of a man who can't be bothered to actually read up on the laws he's signing.

"Mr. President, in light of the latest spy scandal, should senior FBI officials be required to take polygraph tests?" asked Ron Fournier of the Associated Press. "And secondly, what, if any, responsibility should the FBI director, Louis Freeh, bear for this breach of national security?"

"I have confidence in Director Freeh," Bush said. "I think he does a good job. I have confidence in the men and women who work at the FBI. I am deeply concerned about the current spy case, as is Director Freeh. He has made the right move in selecting Judge [William] Webster to review all procedures in the FBI to make sure that this doesn't happen again. We ought to be concerned about espionage in America. In the statement I made the other day, I said we will be diligent; we will find spies, and we will prosecute them. I am pleased that they caught the spy. Now the courts must act."

For this question, as throughout the press conference, Bush looked down at notes that had been placed on the lectern for him ahead of time. Asked if the spy case would damage relations with Russia, Bush seemed to have to look down at his notes before coming up with the name of Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

One of the problems may be that Bush has surrounded himself with sycophants and true believers, who are probably at this very moment telling him what a great job he did, when the word in the press room -- among a press corps that has so far been very charitable toward the new president -- was quite the contrary. Yes, Bush seems like a pretty nice guy (even if he and his allies are capable of some pretty nasty stuff). And yes, he has a certain frat-boy charm and an inner sense of self that contrasted well with Al Gore during the election (even if half a million more Americans actually voted for Gore). But a nation's confidence in its leader -- especially a leader elected under such a cloud -- needs to be built on a stronger foundation than charm.

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