As it becomes clearer by the day that President Bush plans to defy Congressional naysayers to the end, Gene Robinson in the Post rounds up some of the results from Bush's meeting with right-wing journalists last week. [I've already quoted Lowry on Bush as the "last hawk standing," in an earlier post.]

Kate O'Beirne and Rich Lowry of National Review, David Brooks of the Times, Michael Barone of U.S. News and World Report et al. portrayed Bush as sunny and optimistic. Far from being beleaguered, Bush was assertive and good-humored," says Brooks. O'Beirne said "the most striking thing was the president's incongruously sunny demeanor." And Barone said Bush was "not at all weary or anguished" and "very energized."

And the best quote, from Brooks, makes Bush sound eerily like an Islamist caliphate-builder:

"It's more of a theological perspective. I do believe there is an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that Almighty to all is freedom. And I will tell you that is a principle that no one can convince me that doesn't exist."