During a White House meeting last year on possible venues for press conferences, President Bush recalled seeing pictures of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman talking to a swarm of reporters around the desk at the Oval Office.

Bush wondered whether it was feasible to return to pre-televisions days and occasionally conduct a press conference at his desk. Kevin Sullivan, the White House director of communications, replied, “yeah, sort of like ‘throwback jersey day’ at the ballpark.”

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