I agree with you, cp. As I saw it, Russert was off balance the entire interview and the President never backed down to him once, and in fact, came right at Russert every chance he got.
President Bush is a very high caliber Texas style poker player and having played poker with some of the best Texas has to offer (in my rather misspent younger days), my take on it, is that the President is holding a "full boat", "aces high" (at the very least) and sandbagged Russert and the rest of the Dim's masterfully. Just my opinion of course, but time will tell.