The Two Faces of Tony Snow

Snow continued: "Spirits are pretty high. When you've got a White House that is being activist, people tend to rally around not only the president, but around the causes he espouses."

Couric: "What is the strategy to turn things around by November?"

Snow: "You don't look at a turn-it-around strategy. Again, good policy is always good politics. . . . If you want to take a look at the polls, I think it was a USA Today poll, and 79 percent of the American public liking the plan he laid out the other night."

Wrong again.

Snow was apparently referring to a CNN insta-poll conducted Monday night, and not of the general public -- but of people who had earlier indicated that they planned to watch the speech and were willing to be re-interviewed.

Overall, 79 percent of those speech watchers said they had a "very positive" or "somewhat positive" reaction to his plan, while only 18 percent had a "negative" view.

But that sample is widely understood to be skewed, as indicated by the results of similar polls after Bush's previous major speeches. In fact, 79 percent was actually low by the standards of the insta-polls taken after his prior major speeches.

See CNN's complete results , including trend data.

Snow was also on the CBS Early Show with Julie Chen.

Chen: "Right now what's dominating the headlines is reports that allegedly U.S. phone companies gave customer phone records over to the NSA. What do you know about this program?"

Snow: "Well, actually, I don't know a whole lot about it. I've not been read into it. But furthermore, you're assuming that a program exists and we neither confirm nor deny it."

Read that one over again. He hasn't been briefed on it -- and it doesn't necessarily exist.

Chen: "Were there warrants?"

Snow: "Again, Julie, you can't talk about a program that we neither confirm nor deny the existence of."

The Coverage

Much of the coverage of Snow's first briefing focused on his choking up when asked about his experience with cancer.

Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press: "It was nearing the end of the new presidential spokesman's lively question-and-answer period before the cameras, and he was asked why he wears one of the popular yellow "LIVESTRONG" bracelets that raise money for cancer through the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

"Snow, who had his colon removed last year and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer, struggled with his response for 45 seconds. . . .

" 'It's my Ed Muskie moment,' the 50-year-old Ohio native joked about his response."

But of course, far from ending his career -- Muskie's tears sank his Democratic candidacy for president in 1972 -- Snow's show of humanity endeared him to reporters who had grown tired of McClellan's delivery.

The fact that Snow didn't tell them anything wasn't entirely lost on them, however.

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post: "It began as the Tony Snow show. It turned out more like 'Oprah.' . . .

"Reporters leaving the 40-minute session would discover that, like his predecessors, Snow had imparted no useful information to them. But he had done it in a far more entertaining manner."

Caroline Daniel writes in the Financial Times: "Although more open in admitting the limits of his knowledge, Mr Snow was as tight-lipped as his predecessor on some questions.

"On the investigation into the leaking of a CIA agent's name, and the fate of White House officials, he responded: 'I am not going to comment at all on Karl Rove and his private communications with the president.'"

Bill Plante writes on the CBSNews Web site: "Would he tell us anything new? Would it at least be presented differently? How would he handle himself at the lectern?

"The answers: No, yes and confidently."

Michael Scherer writes in Salon: "Tony Snow, the president's new press secretary, wants you to know that he has feelings, he hurts, and he needs a coffee cup to get through his day. He is, in other words, a human being, and that makes him a dramatic departure from his predecessor, Scott McClellan, the doughy master of equivocation and non sequitur who behaved most days like a misfiring automaton, barely betraying any light behind his eyes. . . .

"By the end of the briefing, 40 minutes later, the reviews were raves. Snow had apparently passed his initiation rite. Members of the press corps were thankful for warm blood. As they packed up their notebooks, they were visibly giddy, offering approbations like, 'That was A-1' and 'It's going to be fun.' Even Helen Thomas, the briefing room's matron saint and the press secretary's principle scourge, admitted to being moved by the new guy. 'I thought he had a lot of charm,' she was overheard saying loudly. 'But he didn't answer the questions.' "

Howard Kurtz , writing on washingtonpost.com, was quite taken with Snow, and not just because of his moving cancer story: "Snow was actually . . . interesting to listen to. He seemed to be engaging the press is a conversation, rather than spending his time in a defensive crouch. Yes, he split plenty of hairs in trying to discuss the domestic eavesdropping program without confirming or denying its existence, which seems a bit silly at this stage. He occasionally seemed to wander into rhetorical trouble.

"But he didn't insult the press by saying, in effect, no matter what questions you ask, I'm going to repeat the same boilerplate phrases."

Nope, he found new ways to insult the press.

About the Tar Baby

Alessandra Stanley writes in the New York Times about the "tar baby" reference -- but as a metaphor, rather than an outrage.

"Tony Snow said he didn't want to 'hug the tar baby,' and then he did just that by using the expression in his first televised White House press briefing yesterday.

"The tar-covered doll that Br'er Fox used to ensnare Br'er Rabbit in an 1881 Uncle Remus story is used as a metaphor for a sticky situation, but for some it also carries vague racist connotations -- it has been used as a derogatory term for a black. In a society where a District of Columbia councilman can be accused of racism simply by using the word 'niggardly,' most politicians and TV commentators prefer to avoid tar baby references. . . .

"It was a minor snag in an otherwise smooth, polished performance, but it was nevertheless a reminder of just how sticky the job of White House press secretary can be."

Brit Hume writes on FoxNews.com with outrage -- but, predictably, a different kind of outrage: "No sooner had Tony Snow finished his first briefing as the president's press secretary than Democratic activist and CNN contributor Donna Brazile was on the phone to April Ryan, who covers the White House for the Urban Radio Network.

"In declining to discuss the NSA's alleged collection of domestic phone records, Snow had said he wouldn't 'hug the tar baby' of commenting on a program the White House won't confirm or deny. Brazile wanted it known that several people called her to complain about that reference to an American folk story about a trap that's impossible to get out of -- which has also been used as a racial slur. Ryan has obligingly filed a story about it."

A Retreat -- Or a Ploy?

Charles Babington and Dafna Linzer write in The Washington Post: "The White House, facing a potentially tough Senate grilling of its choice to head the CIA, agreed yesterday to expand the number of lawmakers who will receive classified briefings on the administration's anti-terrorism efforts that include warrantless wiretaps of domestic phone calls and e-mails."

Greg Miller and Joseph Menn write in the Los Angeles Times: "In making the concession, the Bush administration is seeking to improve the prospects of the president's nominee to be the next CIA director, Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, by preempting attacks from lawmakers angry that they have been kept in the dark on domestic spying activities. . . .

"Republican lawmakers cited ancillary benefits to the expanded briefings. The White House had previously expressed concerns that details of the program might leak out if more lawmakers were briefed on it. But senior congressional aides said that because of the rules of handling classified information, members who are briefed will likely have to be more circumspect in their public discussions of it, blunting their ability to criticize it. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a lack of authority to address the press.

" 'When they know about it, they are obligated to be quiet,' said one senior Republican Senate aide."

Poll Watch

Richard Morin and Dan Balz write in The Washington Post: "Bush's job approval rating now stands at 33 percent, down five percentage points in barely a month and a new low in Post-ABC polls. . . .

"The president's current decline has been particularly steep among Republicans, who until last month had generally remained loyal while independents and Democrats grew increasingly critical. According to the survey, Bush's disapproval rating among Republicans has nearly doubled, from 16 percent to 30 percent, in the past month while his approval rating dipped below 70 percent for the first time. Nearly nine in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 independents currently do not like the job Bush is doing as president.

"Public dissatisfaction with Bush has grown in lockstep with opposition to the conflict in Iraq."

Here's the poll data . See in particular what respondents said were their main reasons for approving or disapproving of Bush.