Not an easy time for Scott McClellan over at the White House lately as the President sends him out to the press corps to do damage control. Let's see, there's the hurricanes, massive national debt, War in Iraq, 39% approval ratings, botched Supreme Court nomination, and Karl Rove's visits to the grand jury to talk about. And the photo opps with POTUS are being upstaged, first by Brownie, then the lady from DOD who steals the show by prepping the troops on an open video link. Does this president have any friends left besides Mary Matalin? The Administration that gave America the Bankruptcy Act itself is standing in line looking for aid -- can it be -- from the Democrats? It's closing in on Final Exam time for George W. Bush and everything in the playbook isn't working: the Orwellian terminology, the staged events, the "hunt 'em down" rhetoric. Americans Red and Blue are taking a reality check: Mayor Nagin is asked by a displaced New Orleans businesswoman: "How can you tell us to return if there's no Wal Mart to buy groceries at?" It's the Q&A formula everyone is directing to Washington this autumn: How can a national economy survive as production is sent overseas? How can a war be won without adequate troop levels? How can Social Security be privatized as corporations falter on earnings and ethics? There is a myth overseas in all this, tho, that says America is divided. Not really, we learned after Vietnam to support the troops - - but we also learned to ask questions. It's the bedrock of a democracy. We still say: "God Bless America", it's just that we're not asking God to drown us in water and debt and body bags. Oh, Karen Hughes, won't you please stop all the foreign travel, march into the Oval Office and give George a crib sheet, turn on his television and remind him that not only is he supposed to defend the Constitution but he's also supposed to defend the national social fabric.
