Iain Coleman has an ephipany about Bush:
To the best of my knowledge, Bush has never taken unscripted questions from members of the public in a sustained discussion. Never. This is such a fundamental duty of a democratic politician, whether that’s a lowly councillor like myself or the head of government. I’ll criticise Tony Blair for a hell of a lot of things, but when the Iraq war was imminent and the public was against him he went on TV to be grilled, first by Paxo, then by members of the public, and he explained and defended himself robustly. Or take John Major: I’m sure that for a lot of people the turning point of the 92 election was when he stood on a soapbox in the street and faced a hostile public at close quarters. The contrast with Kinnock’s stadium-rock triumphalism couldn’t have been greater, and helped establish his “Honest John” tag.