The Time Man of the Year "Does Not Negotiate with Himself!"

In case you missed it, Pres. Bush rolled out a new approach to fielding questions at the press conferences that he rarely holds, "not negotiating with himself.":

When the subject turned to Social Security, the president made clear that questions about his views on the subject were strictly out of bounds -- as when CNN's John King asked why Bush wasn't talking about "tough measures" such as raising the retirement age or cutting benefits.

"Now the temptation is going to be, by well-meaning people such as yourself, John, and others here as we run up to the issue, to get me to negotiate with myself in public," Bush said. Saying he was trying to "condition" reporters, he added: "I'm not going to negotiate with myself and I will negotiate at the appropriate time with the law writers, and so thank you for trying."

When another questioner asked Bush to make his case for personal Social Security accounts, a wary Bush sought to suppress the negotiator within. "Yeah, I will try to explain how without negotiating with myself," he began.

The resourceful Edwin Chen of the Los Angeles Times pointed out that Bush had already negotiated with himself by ruling out benefit cuts for retirees and near-retirees, then asked Bush to define "near-retired."

The president saw through this plea for self-negotiation. "Yeah, well, that's going to fall in the negotiating-with-myself category," he said.

Brilliant maneuver, one may say. But let me get this straight: he doesn't negotiate with Congress, he doesn't negotiate with other world powers, he doesn't negotiate with the more moderate members of his own cabinet and other dissenters out there, and now, it's clear he doesn't "negotiate with himself," whatever that means. Gee, I guess the 60 million dollar question is, who does this man negotiate with?