In a rare move, the gaggle allowed the cameras to be on for the first five minutes.
Snow received applause from some reporters when he arrived.
Said one reporter: "Where you been?" Another: "Did Rove do a double delete on you?"
As he began discussing his cancer, Snow said, "I'll try not to get choked up." That didn't work out so well, as Snow choked up on several occasions and took long pauses to regain his composure.
On cancer: "You never anticipate this stuff...it just happens."
He thanked NBC's Kelly O'Donnell "for the basket."
"Anybody who does not believe that thoughts and prayers make a difference are just wrong."
"Faith, hope and love is a big part of it."
"I'm unbelievably lucky and unbelievably blessed."
His advice to those with cancer: "Don't go it alone." "Be of courage." "You've got the gift of life so make the most of it."
Of course, when it was time to get back to the issues of the day, Snow asked that the cameras be turned off and instantly slipped by referring to the "Iran supplemental" instead of "Iraq." He was able to deflect attention, however, by poking fun at a journalist who recently misspelled Iraq.
When asked "Are we winning the war?" Snow sighed, repeated the question and said, "Yeah, exactly, 'Welcome Back.'"
Snow later apologized for not thanking Dana Perino and the White House Press Office in his earlier, televised remarks and said that, with Perino, "a star has been born." At one point, Perino was so interested in the briefing that she was checking out her split ends. A photographer caught her in the moment and we can't wait for those pictures to come out.
