Thursday’s news conference was just minutes old when President Bush made a startling announcement. “Mandela’s dead,” he said. There was a gasp in the White House briefing room at this news, which would no doubt surprise the 89-year-old Nelson Mandela himself.Fortunately, the president quickly clarified that he was not speaking of the sainted South African but of his equivalents in Iraq. “Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas,” he explained. Mass exhalation. It was about as close as Bush comes these days to making big news. Wrapping up his seventh year in office and unable to rise from his ratings slump, the president has run low on major announcements. Is a recession looming? “I think I got a B in Econ 101.”His thoughts on Israel’s bombing of Syria? “I’m not going to comment on the matter.” How about the racial conflagration in Jena, Louisiana.? “There’s litigation taking place.” When asked: “For Republicans seeking election next year, are you an asset or a liability?” “Strong asset,” was Bush’s full reply.Reporters had been hopeful that Bush would have something exciting to say when the White House announced the news conference Thursday morning. Fox News’s Wendell Goler powdered his face with a makeup brush. “There’s always something exciting at a presidential news conference,” he said.Even when asked about former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan’s criticism of the administration, Bush’s answer assigned Congress culpability for failing to overhaul Social Security. “There wasn’t the political will in Congress,” he said.Asked about the Iraqi government’s problems, he noted that “part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule”.
