Only Nixon Hid from the Public More

Including appearances with foreign leaders, Bush has held far fewer news conferences (39) in his first two years than did President Clinton (84) and the first President Bush (70), according to a new study of presidential news conferences by Martha Joynt Kumar of Towson University. ...

On Dec. 17, the board of directors of the White House Correspondents' Association wrote to Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, listing a string of recent events and issues, including preparation of the nation "for the possibility of war," that represent "important considerations for the American people." Yet, the board said, the people have heard few answers from their president. "President Bush has not taken a single question, in fact, since December 5. Nor is this an unusual condition for this administration," the letter said. "This is not simply a plea for increased public access to President Bush," the board wrote. "It is, we believe, an immutable fact of democratic life."

www.washingtonpost.com...

[Edited on 5-2-2003 by Bout Time]

What a hotbed of intellectual cut-and-thrust Towson university must be.
Seriously, B-T I think other factors might be at work here such as lobbyists, the fragmention of American media, the sorts of issues that were to be addressed, the control of the media and so forth. And the characters, personalities, or even looks of the men. Nixon notoriously hated TV after the "shaving shadow" debate with Kennedy: Ford and Johnson and Bush 1 had pretty sympathetic media, Carter was destroyed by the media.
As he is a Republican in 2003, I can't say Bush's absence is entirely unremarkable.IT's a largely hostile media and a sound-bite 15-second max audience. Why waste the energy?
Incidentally, the first thing Blair did was to halve Parliamentary question time. These are not old-style politicians nurtured on debate and public gatherings: they're rich lawyers who can afford to pay for TV faces and have little to fear from equally feeble opposition politicians.

True indeed; but a 3 question limit and denial of unscripted interface does not a leader make. That the 'golden calf' packed as president/savior is just getting mainstream mention of the duck & cover style favored by his handlers forces one to acknowledge brilliance even though it's inherently evil.

That's brilliance of the marketing plan , by the way!

Well, we all know the kind of bonehead comments he tends to make when you let him loose in public without a script.

Me, I'd keep him hidden (if I was one of the handlers.)

Once again, you skip right over Clinton and go to a Republican president. Bout Time, you are seriously delud...I mean, amazing. Yeah, that's it - amazing.

Bush must cushion himself from questions that the NWO peps havent given him the answers to.