Lame-duckhood may have taken hold of administration

President Bush's news conferences are sparsely attended these days, with many reporters out on the campaign trail (RON EDMONDS/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

WASHINGTON - The bulletin reached President Bush toward the end of his news conference yesterday.

Peter Maer of CBS News Radio asked what seemed to be a straightforward question. "What's your advice to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4-a-gallon gasoline"

"Wait, what did you just say?" the shocked president interrupted. "You're predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?"

"A number of analysts are predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline," Maer explained.

You could've knocked Bush over with a feather.

"Oh, yeah?" he said. "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."

Uh-oh. The president, once known for his common-guy skills, sounded eerily like his father, who in 1992 seemed amazed to discover that supermarkets had bar-code scanners. On Wednesday, the $4-a-gallon forecasts had been on the front page of The New York Times and on NBC's "Today Show" and CBS's "Early Show."

The president, however, had difficulty grasping the possibility, even after Maer told him. "You said the price of gasoline may be up to $4 a gallon, or some expert told you that," Bush repeated. "That creates a lot of uncertainty."

Bush, too, faces a lot of uncertainty, and not of the petroleum-derived variety. In these waning months of the Bush presidency, Congress is increasingly ignoring his ultimatums. Reporters have left him for the campaign trail. And Bush at times seems to be lacking his killer instinct.

At yesterday's session, NBC's David Gregory invited him to criticize Democratic presidential candidates for not knowing much about the expected new Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev.

"I don't know much about Medvedev, either," Bush replied.

Olivier Knox of Agence France-Presse asked Bush why he was going to the Olympics in China despite the country's human rights record.

"I'm a sports fan," the president reasoned.

And when Michael Abramowitz of The Washington Post asked Bush about his reluctance to talk to hostile foreign leaders, Bush delivered a tirade about the Castro brothers, then disclosed his intention to hug Abramowitz.

But is the country listening? The White House had limited attendance at the news conference to one reporter per news outlet, but this proved unnecessary; there were two rows of empty seats in the back.

The president got quickly to his familiar lines about the Democrats' weaknesses on terrorism: "We cannot protect our country from terrorist attack." But when Fox News's Mike Emanuel tried to provoke Bush by asking whether Democrats "are playing a high-stakes game" with the nation's security, Bush pulled back. "No, I don't think so," he said. "I don't think they're that cynical or devious."

Neither did he seem concerned by Gregory's accusation that he "badly misjudged" Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin ("We've had some head-butts, diplomatic head-butts"), or the suggestion by Ken Herman of Cox News that he would take foreign money for his presidential library ("Yes, probably take some foreign money"). Even the lack of a replacement for his top homeland security adviser, who resigned more than three months ago, caused him no worry.

"We got a fine man named Joel Bagnal working that office right now," Bush said.