I SPENT ABOUT 40 minutes with President Bush in the Oval Office late yesterday afternoon, in a meeting whose purpose was to allow the president to preview the Iraq speech he’s giving today.

We ended up spending more than half the time on other matters. The president recounted some of the behind-the-scenes negotiations at the recent NATO summit. He discussed his phone conversation yesterday with Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, a previous conversation with Chinese president Hu Jintao about the Olympics, and earlier conversations with Arab leaders about Iran. As we were breaking up, the president also offered a few thoughts on the presidential race. The president was forthcoming—and impressive–in discussing these sensitive topics. Unfortunately, he–sometimes prodded by his attentive press secretary, Dana Perino–put these parts of the session off the record.