The Gospel According to George; The press wanted contrition. Maybe they don't understand the man. Bush's faith will guide him--in Iraq and at the polls.(George W. Bush holds press conference on Iraq war and occupation)

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 26-APR-04

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Byline: Howard Fineman and Tamara Lipper, With Richard Wolffe in Washington and T. Trent Gegax with Kerry

In the Oval Office, George W. Bush's aides warned him that the press conference he was about to hold would be contentious. Reporters "will brother-in-law this," one aide predicted, using a golf term for a type of teamwork on the course. They'll follow each other's questions, the aides said, serially demanding apologies and specifics on the tumult in Iraq and the findings of the 9/11 commission. "Really?" the president replied, as in: so what? Back from Crawford, Texas, he knew he had to show he could take a few rounds from the press corps. But he had another goal: to use prime time (the "American Idol" time slot, no less) to deliver a secular sermon on the strategic value of bestowing freedom upon the planet.

Mike Gerson--author of Bush's best spoken--moments, master of the Biblical cadence--had crafted an unusually lengthy opening statement, which began with a sober military "sitrep" and ended with Bush's mantra that "freedom is the deepest need of every human soul."

And so, in the glittering East Room, the "presser" came to pass....

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