By Alyssa Rosenberg So here's an idea: why not have Bob Costas moderate a presidential debate this fall? Yeah, yeah, I know the moderators have been selected and all, but Costas took what could have been a few softball minutes with President Bush during NBC's Olympic broadcast and actually asked some good questions, including how candid Bush felt he could be in his meetings with Hu, whether China's disregard for human rights meant that the country's rise put it on a collision course with the United States, and how Bush's discussions with Putin during the opening ceremony went. That opening ceremony conversation was an incredibly rare moment, I thought, of diplomacy made public. It's hardly the same thing that goes on in conference rooms or offices face-to-face of course, but this was an encounter that happened in a very public setting as events were unfolding in real time. Bush told Costas that "I said that violence is unacceptable. I said it not only to Putin but to the President of the country, Dmitri Medvedev." He went on to mention Medvedev again, which seems like an effort to cast the President as relevant, even though Putin is clearly calling the shots. Again, the messaging developing publicly and as events happening. Very interesting. Bush also said that he wanted Joey Cheek, the speed skater whose visa was revoked because he planned to travel to China as part of Team Darfur to know that "I took the Sudanese message for him." One other revealing thing Bush said during his interview with Costas that says a lot about his priorities: "I went to church here...It gave me a chance to say to the government, why don't you register the underground churches and let them flourish?" There's no question that religious freedom in China is one of a number of incredibly serious civil liberties issues, but Bush mentioned being a person of faith at another point in the interview, too. I don't know that folks have talked a lot about Christianity and Bush's legacy much recently, what with trouble in the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the calming down of equal marriage rights as a political issue, etc. But I think it would be wrong to count faith out as an area where Bush sees accomplishment. I wonder if we'll hear more about his faith in coming months as his term winds to a close.
