An ironic gagging

Strangely enough, in a nation founded on free speech in a time where the Internet, the airwaves and the office chatter is so full of free-flowing political comment, there's one American these days who finds himself unable to speak his mind freely, politically speaking.

The president.

It's a rare situation. Not like, say, when Bill Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, was running and the chief executive's preference was clear. George W. Bush's vice president isn't running. There's no heir apparent in his own party. And anyway, the incumbent is supposed to be detached from a real competition within his own party.

This time, perhaps more important, in these days of his tanked popularity, a Bush endorsement could be a GOP candidate's kiss of death. Although, come to think of it, the president could always publicly denounce his favorite candidate and thereby perhaps perversely help him.

Bush reflected on all this in his news conference today when a reporter sought to draw him into the controversy over Barack Obama's recent statements about unilaterally attacking Pakistan.

"I suspect," the president said, "that over the course of the next months when I hold a press conference, you'll be trying to get me to engage in presidential politics, trying to get me to opine about what candidates are saying, whether they be Republicans or Democrats. And hopefully I'll be disciplined enough not to fall prey to your question, not to fall into that."

We wager the reporters will nonetheless keep trying.

--Andrew Malcolm