Photo Op Bites Back

"I'm sure I continued smiling, but I was stunned. What I understood from this was that if I pleased the White House with my questioning of the president, I would get to interview the first lady."

There was her decision to ignore the rules:

"Reporters often begin a big interview by asking a soft question -- to let the subject warm up before getting into the substance of the topic at hand. This was how I had initially intended to begin with Bush, but as I mentally rehearsed the likely scenario, I felt that too much time could be consumed by his first probable answer, praising Ireland and looking forward to his visit. We could, I had calculated, be into the third minute before even getting to the controversial topics. I decided to ditch the cordial introduction."

There was her decision to interrupt, repeatedly:

" 'But Mr President,' I interrupted again, 'the world is a more dangerous place today. I don't know whether you can see that or not.' "

Then there was the recognition that there was really nothing much she could do:

"I was now beginning to feel shut out of this event. He had the floor and he wasn't letting me dance. My blood was boiling to such a point that I felt like slapping him. But I was dealing with the president of the United States; and he was too far away anyway. I suppose I had been naive to think that he was making himself available to me so I could spar with him or plumb the depths of his thought processes. Sitting there, I knew that I was nobody special and that this was just another opportunity for the president to repeat his mantra."

After the interview, there was the immediate blowback:

"Is that how you do it in Ireland -- interrupting people all the time?" Bush asked her.

"I froze. He was not happy with me and was letting me know it.

" 'Yes,' I stuttered, determined to maintain my own half-smile."

And then response from an angry White House aide: