It was funny to see cable news making a big point out of the ovation Bush got from the troops in Iraq, on his sneak visit to a distant air base (he doesn’t dare show up to Baghdad), as if this were unusual. MSNBC was agog, for example, that when Bush asked a Marine how morale was, the kid answered, Great! Do privates tell a general what he doesn’t want to hear, let alone the president? If the kid had said Awful, he could have been sent to the equivalent of the Eastern Front.

UPDATE: Writes Michael Keferi: “It’s funny…when you watch the video, you notice that the only solider with a gun is the guy following Bush. Apparently the soldiers are trustworthy enough to carry guns around town, but not around the president.”