(2004-08-30) — President George Bush today told reporters on Air Force One that he’s pleased with what he has seen of the Republican National Convention, and said party leaders are doing a “good job hiding our wackos from the cameras.”

“If you watch the TV,” said Mr. Bush, “You might think that the Republican party consists of reasonable fiscal conservatives with solid American values and a healthy concern for the defense of our nation. I applaud the convention organizers who are keeping the crazies under wraps.”

The president added that for weeks he has worried that the Republican Convention would be “dominated by our rank-and-file wild-eyed neanderthal bigots who want to bomb the rest of the world back to the bronze age-in other words, the folks we call ‘the base’.”