Was President Bush's third primetime East Room press conference a success, or a disaster?

From the post-press-conference commentary of most of the Democrat-dominated networks, it was a disaster.

But from Scripps Howard News Service's chief editorial writer, Jay Ambrose, it was the behavior of the Big Media correspondents that was disastrous. He writes:

To listen to and read their comments after the Bush press conference Tuesday night, you almost get the idea the critics won't be wholly satisfied unless the president abdicates his office. Short of that, they would like him to say the Sept. 11 terrorist attack was his fault and that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was a grotesque error having nothing to do with the protection of this country. They would like an admission, too, that the recent frightening events in Iraq require a wholly different strategy.

For some reporters, a press conference is show time. They don't just ask questions. They give pompous little speeches, as if they themselves were running for high office. And it's not unusual for the questions to be invitations for the president to commit political suicide.

Several questions were of that order, such as whether he would like to take "personal responsibility" for 9-11 or whether he would like to apologize for it and what he would identify as his "biggest mistake" since that awful day 2-1/2 years ago ... Apologize? That would make roughly as much sense as America's police chiefs apologizing every day for crime in the streets.

The Washington Times' lead editorial noted:

Frustrated members of the press now say the president is just stubborn and suggest that his unwillingness to admit failure is evidence of a personality defect. But given the low regard in which the Fourth Estate is held by the American people, Mr. Bush shouldn't worry too much.

A recent Gallup Poll disclosed that 65 percent of the public hold the mainline media in low regard. Their performance Tuesday night should knock a few more points off their credibility. We commend Mr. Bush for the fine job he did in taking his case to the American people.

Can you imagine what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have done if there were – at any of his post-Pearl Harbor press conferences – any such questions as those asked of President Bush? Such as:

"Mr. President, could you tell us what mistakes you made with regard to Pearl Harbor?" (Which FDR would have probably answered: "Yes. I have just made the bad mistake of calling on you for a question that, if answered, would give aid and comfort to the enemy.")

FDR, on occasion, ordered reporters who asked outrageous questions to go stand in a corner – or even sit on a stool wearing a dunce cap.

And when the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News exposed a leaked top-secret contingency plan to send millions of our troops to Europe to fight Nazi Germany, he ordered one of their reporters: "Front and center!" where he pinned a medal on his lapel: Nazi Germany's Iron Cross.