No Cue Cards Please, Mr. President
This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.
We've seen and heard a lot from President Bush here at CBS News the last couple of days. Our Bob Scheiffer conducted an exclusive interview with him Friday at the White House and we've been running pieces of it ever since. Sunday's Face the Nation was devoted entirely to the interview and the president was calm, assured and even candid about some things.
This is not the President we see very often. Mostly it's a sentence or two from a speech he's giving or a snippet from one of his news conferences, or if he's addressing us from the Oval Office. My opinion: None of those settings show the president at his best.
During last week's news conference President Bush was actually quite funny, quick on his feet. But I groaned every time the president went from engaging the question to finding his card on the lectern with his talking points.
The Scheiffer interview showed this President don't need no stinkin' talking points.
Harry's daily commentary can be heard on manyCBS Radio News affiliates across the country.
By Harry Smith