We were raving about him two months ago.

Well, I'll tell you, about a year ago in November the National Zoo had its first litter of cheetah cubs born. And when we had them debut, the very first day, we had over about 2,500 people file through just for them. And I don't mean to make it a popularity contest, but they were nowhere near as popular before their debut as this panda cub.

It wasn't close a few months ago.

If you want to restore China's international image to what it was 12 months ago, treating journalists better is a good place to start.

We were a little sloppy, but they had a lot to do with that. Maybe two months ago we might not have been tough enough to hang on and increase that lead. We seem to be getting tougher.

I'm better than I was two months ago, better than I was six months ago, and certainly better than I was 17 months ago.