Gone at 53 after a three year fight with colon cancer. What a pity. A very humorous and good-natured pundit both before and after his stint as press secretary.
Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow Dies at 53 – washingtonpost.com
When Bob Woodward of The Washington Post disclosed internal White House maneuvering to push out then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Snow tried to dismiss the account with a memorable putdown. “The book is sort of like cotton candy: It kind of melts on contact,” he said. When a flamboyant radio reporter demanded to know whether Snow was going to evade a typically offbeat question, Snow chuckled. “No,” he said, “I’m going to laugh at it.”
In short, his was the first briefing for the talk show era, and he played the role with gusto. He loved nothing more than jousting with reporters at a televised briefing and expressed disappointment on days when they did not challenge him enough. To him, the job was the “Disney World of communications,” as he once termed it. But at times, it seemed more about the theater than the information. He demonstrated little interest in the nitty-gritty of policy and delegated most off-camera reporter inquiries to his deputies. Precision was not his strong suit; translating difficult decisions into easily digestible explanations was.
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