Bush to Appear on TV Talk Show

Amid Democratic attacks and a recent drop in his approval ratings, President Bush has decided to take the unusual step of giving an hourlong interview to a Sunday morning television talk show -- NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“The president wanted to directly discuss with the American people his thinking about the war on terror” and other subjects, said deputy White House press secretary Trent Duffy.

Several polls conducted at the end of January detected a swift drop in the president’s approval ratings over the month. In a recent CNN/Gallup Poll, the president’s job approval rating fell from 60% at the beginning of the month to 49% at the end -- the first time in his presidency that Bush registered below 50% in the Gallup Poll.

“I don’t think the sky is falling at all, but it is causing some gnashing of teeth, especially at the grass-roots level,” said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who managed Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.

Bush’s appearance on “Meet the Press” comes during a difficult period. Duffy said Bush proposed the idea on Tuesday, following a weekend in which he tried to quell questions about prewar intelligence on Iraq by agreeing to appoint an independent commission.

It also came after a month of politicking by the contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, who have concentrated their fire on the incumbent, said Bush aides.

“We’ve had the Democrats on every single week in the month of January, and we were very interested in equal opportunity for the president,” said the show’s executive producer, Betsy Fischer.

Fischer said host Tim Russert, who is in his 11th year of moderating the program, “is going to do his usual tough but fair interview.”

The interview will be conducted in the Oval Office on Saturday and will air unedited on Sunday morning, according to NBC. The network expects to air excerpts Saturday on its news show. In Los Angeles, “Meet the Press” is broadcast on KNBC at 8 a.m. Sundays.

It is rare, although not unprecedented, for sitting presidents to subject themselves to the Sunday talk show format, in which questions tend to be more confrontational and hosts often ask pointed follow-up questions. President Clinton did so half a dozen times in his eight years as president, twice on “Meet the Press.”

Bush’s last network interview was with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, which aired Dec. 16, according to an ABC release.