PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH summed it up succinctly: "I'm not going to change, see?" In an hourlong interview with Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," conducted Friday and aired yesterday, Bush consistently defended actions that many Americans now question.
Pre-war intelligence failures on Iraq did not trouble Bush. Although he conceded the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction he expected to find have not materialized, Bush said the larger point is that Saddam Hussein was "a madman" who had used such weapons in the past and "had the ability to make weapons, at the very minimum."
Is George Tenet's job as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in jeopardy? "No, not at all, not at all."
Many US military leaders have said they have been dismayed at the continuing level of resistance to American troops in Iraq. Is Bush? "No. I'm not."
What about the domestic economy, which has lost more than two million jobs on his watch even as the deficit is soaring above $500 billion? "I think this economy is coming around just right, frankly."
This level of stubbornness in the face of contrary evidence is bound to hurt Bush's credibility. Beyond that, it pushes him into positions that are increasingly untenable.
For instance, when he was pressed on the administration's rationale for war against Iraq because it was an imminent threat, Bush said, "I believe it is essential that, when we see a threat, we deal with those threats before they become imminent. It's too late if they become imminent. It's too late in this new kind of war."
Does this mean that Bush would strike militarily against potential threats? Is this a new policy that goes beyond preemptive action against supposedly real, immediate threats and contemplates attacks on imagined ones? Bush would do better to admit that the Iraq war rationale was off base, though he could still argue the result was worthwhile.
Similarly, Russert said that every president who has conducted a war has raised taxes to finance it, rather than cut them as Bush has. But Bush declared he would not consider any new taxes and wouldn't rule out further cuts.
The one moment when Bush admitted regret came when Russert asked how he had become the object of such intense partisan feeling from supporters and opponents -- a divider rather than a uniter. Bush said Washington was a tougher place to find "common ground" than he had anticipated.
But this appealing acknowledgment stood apart. The rest of the interview showed Bush grimly obstinate. "I'm a war president," he said, referring repeatedly to the war on terrorism as the defining mission of his presidency. But he continues to stumble over inconvenient facts as he marches straight ahead.