A Peek Under the PR Mask

So why didn't they applaud? I called Maurer and asked him.

"When President Bush came in, the Sergeant Major called them all to attention," Maurer said. That explained their silence as Bush approached the podium. But after that?

"The only thing I can think of is that they just weren't told to," Maurer said. "Because they're soldiers, you're not going to get your normal crowd. They're going to sit disciplined and listen to the speech."

It was certainly not a reflection of the audience's disapproval, Maurer said. He spoke to several members of the audience after the speech and he told me "it kind of reaffirmed what they were doing . . . they got sort of a renewed vigor."

Lousy Ratings

Reuters reports: "President Bush's address to the nation, urging Americans to stand firm in Iraq, drew the smallest TV audience of his tenure, Nielsen Media Research reported on Wednesday.

"Bush's speech on Tuesday night at the Ft. Bragg military base in North Carolina averaged 23 million viewers combined on the four major U.S. broadcast networks and three leading cable news channels networks that carried the speech, Nielsen said."

A Bush Interview

Roland Watson and Gerard Baker write in the Times of London: "President Bush is ready to commit more American resources to Africa, but only for countries that put their houses in order, he has told The Times days before the G8 summit. . . .

"In an exclusive Oval Office interview with The Times, Mr Bush branded Robert Mugabe a tyrant who had ruined his country, but said that he would not attach strings to US food aid because that would punish ordinary Zimbabweans.

"On the other big issue of the Gleneagles summit, Mr Bush offered another nod towards Tony Blair, saying that he was committed to finding new energy sources to replace fossil fuels and conceded that Americans would have to end their love affair with gas-guzzling cars. 'We are leading the way,' he insisted."

Here's the transcript of the interview.

Gerard Baker writes about the atmosphere: "In person Mr Bush is so far removed from the caricature of the dim, war-mongering Texas cowboy of global popular repute that it shakes one's faith in the reliability of the modern media."

And, Baker writes: "As expansive as he is, Mr Bush can't help betraying a faint irritation at the intrusiveness of the modern media, with a reference to a famous brief medical emergency from a couple of years ago.