Listening to audio of the President’s press conference on my computer, and lacking visuals, I did not get all the nuances of the occasion. But I’m with Larry: it did seem that he was very strong, and he has been since he woke from his self-imposed slumber and decided that it would be a good thing to defend his policies. Only time will tell whether this will be a sustained offensive, even a new way of conducting communications at the White House, or just another one of those periodic bursts of diligence that is not followed up. We’ve seen that before.

Unless I am missing something, it seems that whenever Bush fights back, his opposition starts to fray. Here’s hoping that he keeps hitting, and hitting hard, on the NSA wiretapping leak and the pathetic Senate performance on the Patriot Act. It’s near- thrilling to hear him engaged at this critical time, and not one second too soon.