Listening to W

Biting political cartoons are available on the web, if not in every newspaper, highlighted by commentary on Bush's recent press conference, including: "Hell yes they're (words) garbled in his mind! His mind is like one of those spinning cages where you pull out the winning lottery numbers--but there's only four goddamn little balls in his cage: "Freedom," "Democracy," Terror," and "Stay the Course." He opens his mouth, one of the balls drops out. That's not a conversation, that's Keno.

After reading the New Republic's commentary on the press conference, I was reminded of a Post piece from last year when Ari Fleischer left his job as White House press secretary that described the strategic benefits of incoherence. I don't know that the President deliberately utters nonsense just to get out of tough questions, but it does beg the question of what sort of honesty officeholders owe voters.

Maybe that's why the Zogby International poll released today (from 1049 likely voters polled April 15-17) puts Kerry up by three 47 to 44 with 7% undecided. Or it could be the 49% of Americans who said that the U.S. is on the wrong track, versus 44% who said that we are on the right course.