Maybe the president had it right. I was a major-league asp. I puzzled over whether W. fancied himself the mongoose or the snake charmer in this allegory. Either way, I knew he would expect me to hiss a bit about his first 100 days. It has been a strange start.
Men customarily build their presidencies around their strengths.
W. has built his around his weaknesses. Bush officials are always frantically pirouetting around W., making up for his stumbles and lacunae. Obviously, Mr. Bush did not set out to change nearly 30 years of American policy on a morning chat show. So they tried to soften his statement while letting it stand, thereby enraging Beijing further. On Friday night, Uncle Dick Cheney had to go on Larry King and explain in that reassuring basso that the Kid was not changing policy.