Incredibly Optimistic

"The president's answer today essentially was the 'whole world' was wrong about Hussein having weapons of mass destruction and that changes have been made to the U.S. intelligence apparatus in an effort to fix the intelligence mistakes that contributed to the decision to invade Iraq.

"Americans will decide in the coming weeks and months whether such an answer to such a question is good enough to lift the president's approval ratings from their current doldrums.

"But it's probably safe to say an answer that essentially boils down to 'I was a victim of bad intelligence but we're working on that,' probably isn't enough do the trick."

Ron Hutcheson of Knight Ridder Newspapers notes Bush's denial that he ever explicitly said that Saddam Hussein ordered 9/11.

"While that's true, the president did link Iraq to 9-11 in other ways.

"For example, in a letter to Congress at the start of the war, Bush said the use of force against Iraq 'is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.' "

James Gerstenzang writes in the Los Angeles Times: "For a president whose public appearances have often been choreographed, the questions proved penetrating and critical.

"The first was whether Bush agreed with 'prophetic Christians' who see the war in Iraq as an early sign of the apocalypse. The president stammered, laughed nervously and said: 'First I'd heard of that.' . . .

"A high school student, asserting that the war was costing $19,600 per household, wondered whether that money could be put to better use as college tuition aid. 'We can do more than one thing at a time,' Bush replied."

A " Fact Check" from Senate Democrats disputes several of Bush's claims.

Iran Watch

Bush was also asked about the application of his doctrine of preemption. "How is it, Mr. President, that Iran today is really different from what Iraq was three years ago?"

"Well, first of all, there were 16 Security Council resolutions," Bush said, in a rambling response. "The Iranian issue is just beginning to play out."