Can You Marginalize a Majority?

"4. What is 'the mission.' Can we abandon a 'mission' that has never been defined? To quote George Harrison: If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

"Imagine if the press corps took this one short sentence and forced Bush to define his terms."

Where's Osama?

Reuters reporter Toby Zakaria did ask one good question yesterday, however: "Why has it been so difficult to catch bin Laden and Zarqawi? And can you really say that you are making progress in the war on terrorism when these people have been, you know, able to stay free for so long?"

In part of his drawn-out response, Bush had this to say: "No question that some of their leaders are still at large, isolated, however, kind of in remote parts the world. But make no mistake about it, we're doing everything we can to find them. And when we do, we'll bring them to justice."

The Saudi Critique

Joel Brinkley writes in the New York Times: "Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said Thursday that he had been warning the Bush administration in recent days that Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration, a development that he said could drag the region into war. . . .

"Prince Saud's statements, some of the most pessimistic public comments on Iraq by a Middle Eastern leader in recent months, were in stark contrast to the generally upbeat assessments that the White House and the Pentagon have been offering."

The President, the Hurricane, and the Cameras

I wrote in yesterday's column that the While House was getting fully prepared to deploy a massive federal response -- and the president himself -- at a moment's notice.

I had no idea they were going to move this fast.

Craig Gordon writes in Newsday: "It took President George W. Bush four days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans to set foot on the Gulf Coast to survey the damage.

"Today, Bush is planning to visit his home state even before Hurricane Rita does. . . .

"The White House said at the time that Bush delayed visiting the hardest-hit parts of New Orleans so the security-heavy presidential entourage wouldn't get in the way of rescue and recovery efforts. In Texas today, Bush is planning to visit emergency crews as they are preparing for Rita, but Bush spokesman Scott McClellan insisted, 'We're not going to get in the way.'"

Richard W. Stevenson writes in the New York Times: "Under intense pressure to show that he has learned the practical and political lessons of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush planned on Thursday to pack his foul-weather gear and head to Texas on Friday ahead of Hurricane Rita, trying to make clear that he is directing an all-out federal effort to cope with the storm.