We all have certain words and phrases we use frequently, but White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has one that stands out for me. Consider this exchange from yesterday’s briefing.
Q: Why did he decide to give enemy body counts? That’s something that they’ve generally tried to stay away from.
SNOW: Well, that’s a good question. I won’t try to — rather than trying to tell you why the President said what he said — because I can’t give you the exact — I can’t put him on the couch right now — what I can do is at least offer one possible reason why that’s an important data point for Americans, which is there’s a lot of concern about U.S. casualties and deaths, as there should be — 103 deaths in October alone. (emphasis added)
Let’s put aside the substantive issue about of war body counts for a moment and take a look at that phrase, “I can’t put him on the couch right now.” Snow uses it quite a bit, and I think I understand what he means, but it’s become an easy and overly used cop-out. Questions about the president’s decisions and perspective are easily batted away — if Snow doesn’t like the subject — by suggesting that answering the question would require some kind of psychoanalysis.
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