Tears from the press conference

Bush's press conference has produced a certain amount of weepiing and, presumably, gnashing of teeth also among some in the blogosphere.  No rending of garments reported yet.

Hesiod is in tears:

Frankly, I weep for this country if we do not change leaders in November.

Okay, it's kind of conditional, prospective weeping, but still.  Here's Hesiod's general conclusion:

He looked absolutely clueless. He looked like he had no way out of the problems we are facing in Iraq, and is just trying to play out the string until the election.

Jen at Steve Gilliard's blog is in tears:

I weep for my country.

Jen also says that Bush didn't seem at all like he wanted to be doing that press conference:

He looks like a teenager at his shotgun wedding.

Dave Johnson wasn't weeping.  But he figures the Republican Party should be:

I think there has never been a Presidential performance like this before, and I am including Reagan's rambling answer in the Mondale debates, when his Alzheimer's disease was beginning to have its effect.

I can not imagine that a reasonable adult could watch this performance without thinking that it would be best if the Republicans choose someone else as their candidate this year. Best for the country, best for the Republican Party, best for the world.

By the way, check out the cool Faulkner statue depicted on that blog.  There's a statue like that on the main square in Oxford, Mississippi.

The press conference even made Johnson feel a tad nostalgic for Tricky Dicky:

I mean, looking back from here, compared to this crowd even Nixon seems like a reasonable, fairly-honest, moderate leader who was at least somewhat concerned about the greater good of his country when it came down to it.

DHinMI came close to tears of astonishment when Elizabeth Bumiller, a notorious Bush panderer, asked something like a real question:

When he's not questioned or challenged, or things are going swimmingly, he comes across as confident and resolute.  But when the environment changes--like tonight, when even NYT correspondent Elizabeth Bumiller (!) asked a slightly pointed question, and the White House press corps showed signs that they're embarrassed about their performance over the last three years, Bush resumes smirking and becomes that smug jerk we all hated in high school. ...

When asked about a situation or development, Bush answered by referencing himself, often with strange third person-like observations of himself.  He failed to give even an approximation of an answer to all but a couple of the questions.  And most damning, despite being given numerous opportunities, Bush showed he's constitutionally prohibited from accepting responsibility--not blame, responsibility.

Kevin Drum seems to think that Bush may have wanted to weep:

Today, responding to a routine press conference question, George Bush Jr. froze like a deer in headlights. He excused himself by saying it was really hard to come up with an answer under the "pressure" of a press conference.

Tom Tomorrow was too disgusted to feel weepy:

He's so awful. He just flounders around until he can dredge up a marginally appropriate sound bite--and when the question doesn't allow for that, he's just utterly lost.