We were particularly struck, during President Bush's action-packed press conference today, by how he handled the question about whether he lied to reporters last week, back when he told them Donald Rumsfeld was doing a "fantastic" job and would stay on through the rest of his term. When asked about it today, Bush first suggested that he purposely misspoke to the reporters to throw them off the scent. Moments later, he spun it differently, saying he couldn't have known for sure Rumsfeld would step down until he spoke with Robert Gates, his choice to succeed Rumsfeld, yesterday. That, of course, doesn't mean that Bush didn't know full well that he was going to do -- and he seems to concede as much by offering, sort of, in a confusing way, that he decided not to say anything about military leadership that could affect the election. Really, like what? Like that he might dump Rummy? So instead, he told us he'd be around for another two years?
It's pretty easy for politicians to spin reporters away from direct questions -- lord knows we've seen enough of it -- did he really need to sell a lie? Watch the tape and tell us in the Comments section what you think.
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