Damn. Atrios beat me to the "exit strategy" joke.

Here or here.

Yes, I know all you good liberal blog adherents out there have already seen it, but we here at Battlepanda would be remiss in our duties if we didn't add our little bit of bandwidth to the media pig pile. In all honesty, I'll admit the urge to give the guy a break on this one. Yes, it's the kind of harmless, head-slapping goof-up we've come to expect, and with all the substantive things this guy's done horribly, horribly wrong, I'm inclined to give him a pass on pulling a Gerald Ford.

What really embarrasses me is seeing just how, well, bitchy this guy can be. Witness this exchange with a journalist at that same event:

"Respectfully, sir -- you know we're always respectful -- in your statement this morning with President Hu, you seemed a little off your game, you seemed to hurry through your statement. There was a lack of enthusiasm. Was something bothering you?" he asked.

"Have you ever heard of jet lag?" Bush responded. "Well, good. That answers your question."

I think it's past someone's bedtime.