Another Question, Mr. President?

President Bush's prime time news conference Thursday night was overdue. Despite the swirl of events at home and abroad, Mr. Bush had not held a solo news conference since Nov. 7, two days after the midterm election, and this was only the eighth of his presidency. President Clinton had held 30 such events at this point in his term, and the first President Bush had held 58. That's a startling difference, and White House communications director Dan Bartlett was straightforward about the reason. "If you have a message you're trying to deliver, a news conference can go in a different direction", he told the Post's Mike Allen. Which is precisely the point. News conferences, especially if held with some regularity, offer an opportunity for reporters to pose questions on an array of topics, not all of which the President may be eager to address, particularly before a live national audience. This may not be the most pleasurable activity for Presidents, but it's an important part of a well-functioning democracy.

White House officials say that the President frequently answers questions in less formal contexts, and that's true, as it was for his predecessors. Mr. Bush had a roundtable with economic reporters a few weeks ago, met earlier last week with a group of regional reporters, and gave an interview to USA Today. In addition, there are "pool sprays", in which a small group of reporters is ushered into the Oval Office for a few questions during, for example, a meeting with a foreign leader. These chances for brief scattershot questioning, while welcome, aren't enough. It's far easier for the President to avoid an answer if he's not on live television. Moreover, the few questions at the pool spray are more apt to be off-the-cuff efforts to get comment on the issue of the hour than on broader policy considerations.

We don't want to overstate the utility of news conferences. The President will field questions that are silly, or convoluted, or more suited for journalistic preening than for serious discussion. Some of the questions Thursday were predictable and repetitive. And yet, it's good for the country to have the President stand up and answer them. The President wasn't asked anything the other night about Osama bin Laden or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There were two questions on North Korea; the rest involved Iraq. That leaves a lot of room to cover in his next news conference: his tax plan, the economy, prescription drugs, homeland security. He ought to return to the podium soon.