A very, very good job, and I thought his delivery was surprising in how effective it was. If you think it was not "polished," that is a good thing, because it shows he was thinking through the questions rather than treating this as a performance. I think he should do these press conferences more often.
During my career, I have often been lauded for my writing skills and for my ability to speak intelligently. But put me up on a podium with a microphone and I start making the same kind of verbal miscues and disjointed sentences that Bush is prone to. Everytime I do this (speak publicly in front of a large audience), I step down feeling like an idiot. It's not that I'm nervous to speak in front of people. It's just that being up there with all those people in front of me becomes overwhelming and distracting and I lose my focus.
I think many people have this syndrome. It does not necessarily reflect on their intelligence.
It should be noted that many of the liberals have the same problem with public speaking but the media tends to give them a pass on it. For instance, Ted Kennedy hasn't been able to string a complete sentence together since The Beatles were still touring. And he sounds much stupider than President Bush with all those "uh's" and "er's". But do you think he is ever called on it? Of course not. As usual, there are different standards being applied here.
Of course it would be nice if President Bush was as slick as Bill Clinton. But Bush is not Bill Clinton and for that at least, we can be very thankful.
Over my professional career, I have dealt with a lot of people. It seems that the polished smooth talkers - the "glad-handers" and back-slappers - are usually the ones who are faking it and they are also the ones who will stab you in the back when you aren't looking in order to get ahead. I'd much rather deal with somebody who is honest and decent.