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BUSH IN BEIJING.
By Alyssa Rosenberg
So here's an idea: why not have Bob Costas moderate a presidential debate this fall? Yeah, yeah, I know the moderators have been selected and all, but Costas took what could have been a few softball minutes with President Bush during NBC's Olympic broadcast and actually asked some good questions, including how candid Bush felt he could be in his meetings with Hu, whether China's disregard for human rights meant that the country's rise put it on a collision course with the United States, and how Bush's discussions with Putin during the opening ceremony went. That opening ceremony conversation was an incredibly rare moment, I thought, of diplomacy made public. It's hardly the same thing that goes on in conference rooms or offices face-to-face of course, but this was an encounter that happened in a very public setting as events were unfolding in real time.
Bush told Costas that "I said that violence is unacceptable. I said it not only to Putin but to the President of the country, Dmitri Medvedev." He went on to mention Medvedev again, which seems like an effort to cast the President as relevant, even though Putin is clearly calling the shots. Again, the messaging developing publicly and as events happening. Very interesting. Bush also said that he wanted Joey Cheek, the speed skater whose visa was revoked because he planned to travel to China as part of Team Darfur to know that "I took the Sudanese message for him."
One other revealing thing Bush said during his interview with Costas that says a lot about his priorities: "I went to church here...It gave me a chance to say to the government, why don't you register the underground churches and let them flourish?" There's no question that religious freedom in China is one of a number of incredibly serious civil liberties issues, but Bush mentioned being a person of faith at another point in the interview, too. I don't know that folks have talked a lot about Christianity and Bush's legacy much recently, what with trouble in the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the calming down of equal marriage rights as a political issue, etc. But I think it would be wrong to count faith out as an area where Bush sees accomplishment. I wonder if we'll hear more about his faith in coming months as his term winds to a close.
COMMENTS (8)
My favorite part? The floating Mao-head (really a giant mural clearly visible through the giant picture window behind him) over Bush's left shoulder throughout the entire interview. Ti-hee!
Posted by: Tovitim | August 11, 2008 9:37 AM
Bush had to stress that it's all Medvedev's fault. Otherwise someone might suspect that he was wrong about Putin's soul.
Posted by: KCinDC | August 11, 2008 10:17 AM
Costas was and is one of the best interviewers I've seen. He was always good, insightful, and extremely well-prepared when he was the host of "Later" in the late 1980s, early 1990s. If NBC had any brains they would have given him a prime-time interview show when his "Later" tenure was up.
Posted by: Ted Kilvington | August 11, 2008 10:55 AM
Ummmm.....what would you have President Bush to do? What authority does he have with China or with Russia?
You lament that we are not all up in their business on these issues, but when it comes to other countries where we are involved, your tune changes. So which is it? Are we to be isolationists or are we to be colonialists? Or do we just ask you on a case-by-case basis how we should feel?
Posted by: El Viajero | August 11, 2008 11:38 AM
via Yglesias...
Washington Times calls for the United States to exert “maximum pressure” on Russia in defense of Georgia. This means, what, exactly? Deploy troops? Threaten nuclear war?
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/08/what_is_maximum_pressure.php
Posted by: El Viajero | August 11, 2008 12:16 PM
Matt Taibbi, 2004
The sporting press in America is a reverse mirror image of its "serious" news counterpart: It is unbelievably vicious and demanding in its interviews; it doesn't take no for an answer from anybody; it is utterly relentless in its quest to find out What Is Wrong With Our Team (even if the team is doing not so badly); and, most pointedly, it has absolutely no respect for coaches, owners and other authority figures.
If George Bush had to go through what Theo Epstein in Boston or Mitch Kupchak in Los Angeles goes through on a daily basis, he would resign within 20 minutes. Can you imagine the dreaded Red Sox beat writers—Dan Shaughnessy, Peter Gammons, Jeff Horrigan and the rest of those snarling monsters—unleashed on, say, Bush's education policy? Shit, they would have had Rod Paige traded to Myanmar for prospects two years ago.
Posted by: pseudonymous in nc | August 11, 2008 5:56 PM
I think it was because of the Olympics but I had the same thought last presidential year. Costas is a prepared, respectful and demanding interviewer. Not a preening jackass like the moderators we were inflicted with during the primaries. There should be a draft Costas for moderator site.
Posted by: ligedog | August 11, 2008 11:19 PM
Costas is far too smart to let the corporatists let him ask pesky smart questions of presidents.
Posted by: christian | August 12, 2008 5:04 PM