I am amazed at how the mainstream media continues to underestimate and misunderstand President Bush. While I certainly do not agree with all of President Bush’s decisions (for example, his imposition of steel tariffs was a horrible mistake – for all his faults, Bill Clinton would have never done this), I do respect President Bush’s competence and think he is fairly predictable. In his entire political career, George W. Bush has a pattern of giving his opponents enough rope with which to hang themselves. He did it again this week.

After he showed his disfavor with Trent Lott, the mainstream media discussed what Senator Lott's problems meant for the Republican party. For some reason, they mostly concluded that President Bush would not renominate Judge Pickering for an appeals court seat and that the White House would remain silent on the University of Michigan race case. Most presidents would have given a speech explaining that Pickering was unfairly denied a vote by 10 liberal Democrats. Most presidents would have pointed out that they were against all racism and that by selecting some students by race, the UM policy was racist and unethical.

President Bush remained silent. It was only after most of his critics had made their positions known and congratulated themselves on their perception that President Bush acted. To the surprise of most in the media, President Bush acted in the way most non-media types would have expected. He renominated Judge Pickering. Even after this example of Bush’s consistency and his refusal to bow to liberal expectations, the media wondered if the White House was hesitating to weigh in on the University of Michigan case. Of course not. The administration was simply giving their opponents more rope. And after the media had spent much effort on this issue, the White House came out against racism in any form.

To me, the real question is what was the Administration doing all of these weeks? President Bush’s response was probably written in a day. Obviously, while the media was making erroneous predictions, President Bush was concentrating on the upcoming war with Iraq and his tax reform package. And for those still predicting President Bush won’t dethrone Suddam Hussein – have some more rope.