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Next Question: Reporters Walk Line Between Deference and Diligence in Quizzing Bush (Mike Allen, December 1, 2004, Washington Post)

Bush has held 16 solo news conferences, compared to 43 for Bill Clinton, 84 for George H.W. Bush and 26 for Ronald Reagan at this point in their presidencies, according to research by Martha Joynt Kumar of Towson University.

These sessions are a contest between Bush's desire to repeat his previously articulated views ("sticking a tape in the VCR," as one frequent Bush questioner puts it), and the reporters' quest to elicit something that will contribute to democracy, not to mention getting them on television or the front page.

"Bush, like most skilled politicians, will tend to answer the way he wants, no matter what the question," says Dana Bash of CNN. "The hardest thing is to ask the question in a way he can't do that. One way is to ask him something with an edge, or something that will make him want to respond."

Reporters save up questions, and seek ideas from their bosses and even from competitors. They edit the wording, trying to cut off escape hatches the president might run for. Rules of thumb are adopted: A question with hostile wording, according to many on the Bush watch, has a zero percent chance of eliciting news from this president because he erects defenses and moves on.

Terry Moran of ABC News sounds like a football player trying to psych out an opponent. "Don't let yourself be intimidated. Don't let yourself be charmed," Moran says. "Bush likes to try to do both. Just remember that he is a public servant, and part of his job is to take your questions."

Moran elicited one of the more memorable unscripted quotations of Bush's first term during an Oval Office photo opportunity in April 2002 when the president was discussing Middle East peace with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. "Mr. President, you said progress has been made toward our vision," Moran said. "Where? And secondly, do you believe that Ariel Sharon is a man of peace, and are you satisfied with his and his government's assurances that there was no massacre in Jenin?"

"I do believe Ariel Sharon is a man of peace," Bush replied, making headlines around the world.

Deconstructing the exchange, Moran says he finds that "focused, forceful and direct questions work best with Bush -- the shorter the better.

"He responds sharply to sharp challenges. He gives better answers to fact-based queries than to open-ended invitations to muse or reflect on events or policies. And sometimes, his Texan habit of answering direct questions quickly and directly leads him to make news inadvertently."

The White House does its own pre-game preparation, and one aide said Bush's staff often gets ready for "a Sanger question." That would be David E. Sanger, a national security specialist and White House correspondent for the New York Times, who says he finds it "most productive to ask about something that's not directly on the news of the day.

"Otherwise," he says, "no matter what the question is, you're likely to hear another version of the message of the day. So if the headlines are full of Iraq, ask about Social Security or North Korea or something that Vladimir Putin said about the Ukraine. . . . The biggest challenge is getting the president to reflect on choices that he has made, explore alternative paths he might have taken, or illuminate how he came to a decision."

CNN's John King says a rookie mistake is to ask questions that are too convoluted, allowing Bush to answer only the part he wants to. King says he makes sure his questions have "one, or no more than two elements."