ARI FLEISCHER: There’s that magic formulation again, “longer than most people expected several weeks ago.” I don’t know who those people are and what their predictions were a couple weeks ago.
Q. Vice President Cheney for starters. I mean, the weeks, not months statement.
MR. FLEISCHER: And you can say after one week that that’s wrong? I don’t know that you can say that. My point –
Q. All I am doing is reflecting what corporate leaders are saying. Okay? This is their perception.
MR. FLEISCHER: But it is the formulation of the question. I wanted to draw attention to that.
Q. This is their perception based –
MR. FLEISCHER: I understand. But since we don’t deal with perceptions, I thought it was important –
Q. You don’t? (Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER: No. I do my best, Bill, to bring it back to reality.
