Bush Tries to Be Unpopular — Not Really

WASHINGTON — Who knew? President Bush wants to be unpopular.

Not really, of course, but that's what his press secretary said Thursday.

Spokeswoman Dana Perino was making the case that it's no surprise that Bush has low poll ratings because he is overseeing an unpopular war. But then her argument went off the tracks.

"Both the president and the vice president have long believed, and it's a part of what has made them the leaders that they are, which is not to chase popularity polls but to hold themselves to a standard that requires people not to like them," she said.

Huh? Requires people not to like them?

She apparently didn't realize what she had said and continued on without correction.

She put it a little better later on in her briefing.

"What I've heard him (Vice President Dick Cheney) say and what I've heard the president say is that regardless of how bad it could get in terms of your popularity rating, you can't make decisions based on chasing popularity."

And speaking of polls, Bush thinks there are too many of them.

"I think there might be a little bit more frustration that this — we are so over-polled in the country," Perino said. "And I think that the way that the president looks at it is that there's — I don't know, maybe — the media polls a lot. That's your prerogative; go ahead. And I think that the questions are — that come to us, that every day when there's a new poll that's out, and that the numbers don't change dramatically, we're expected to express frustration."

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