Welcome to the best of the left podcast with clips today from CounterSpend, The Young Turks,

Countdown on MSNBC and NPR.

How can you tell the White House is in low water with the press?

Well, when reporters start to recast their glowing coverage of George W. Bush, here's howard

Feynman in a critical column in the March 19th issue of Newsweek, quote, at Harvard Business

School, George W. Bush was what they called a skydecker, a guy who sat in the top back

row of the lecture hall to minimize the risk of being called on, close quote.

Well, that doesn't sound so good, but turn back to Newsweek's December 25th 2000 edition.

That's back when Newsweek was trying to shore up the public image of Bush after he lost

the popular vote and was placed in office by the Supreme Court.

Bush's seating arrangement was news then, but listen to how Feynman wrote about it to

answer questions about whether Bush had the smarts to be president.

Quote, Bush is a quick enough study, and in fact there is a method to his preppy casualness.

At Harvard, he was what is still known as a skydecker, a student who chooses to sit

in the top row of the horseshoe-shaped classroom amphitheater.

Skydecker's sat back and listened, ticking in the scene, contributing consensus building

observation from on high.

Close quote.

Feynman went on, quote, from the stratosphere you could escape notice until you'd heard

the flow of the talk.

It suited his methods, and even now he'd much rather learn through briefings than paper.

Close quote.

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