President Takes Impromptu Audience Questions in Kansas
MANHATTAN, Kan., Jan. 23 -- The presidency may be a bully pulpit, but President Bush used it on Monday more like a campfire leader than a political preacher.
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The forum was a departure for the control-oriented, gaffe-fearing Bush White House, which has preferred not to put the president in public settings open to unpredictable and potentially hostile questions.
His "town hall" meetings on Social Security last year, for instance, usually consisted of preselected panelists engaging in discussions rehearsed the night before with a White House official.Last month, Bush was criticized for breaking with tradition and refusing to take questions after a speech on Iraq at the Council on Foreign Relations. A few days later, Newsweek ran a cover story titled "Bush in the Bubble," suggesting he cuts himself off from the outside world. The White House pulled a surprise the next day by inviting audience members to quiz the president after a speech in Philadelphia. It repeated the format last week after an economic speech in Loudoun County, and White House aides said they plan to make it a regular feature for a while.
Here in Kansas, it was a friendly crowd gathered in a solidly red state. White House officials said the university was in charge of attendance, but that they did give some tickets to local Republicans to hand out to GOP supporters. About 100 people protested the Iraq war in 34-degree weather outside the arena, but on his drive into the university Bush was treated to the sight of hundreds of well-wishers waving from front yards.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301550.html