Exhibit A in my opinion that Noonan completely misses the mark in her appraisal of this interview.
Number one, it was not phrased in a softball way.
Number 2, the president had MUCH more to say than "It's politics". Much more.
Number 3, guess which topic from the interview Russert has declared alive and well and a problem for the president? Why, his "softball" about National Guard service. Russert is ignoring the factual state of the record, and misrepresenting what the president said in this interview.
Read that again and everybody realize Tim Russert has decided that this election is when he will cross the line and embrace pure partisan politics and propagate DNC (Kerry) talking points in order to defeat a sitting president. Russert has said the president offered to "release" his records about his service, when what was said is the president pointed out those records have been available for years and reviewed during all of his election campaigns, He said much more, but the key is Russert reporting that records will be "released". Then on Imus this morning he stated what will be needed are tax records.
BTW, Peggy's prediction of how mainstream media would receive this interview was also wrong. It's all over the map, but the Daily News, for one example of a not pro-Bush publication, had a very favorable commentary on it.