Choreographed photo ops as a substitute for leadership.

Interesting column documenting the Bush campaign's penchant for providing resonant backdrops to campaign appearances, including (among others) repositioning a Coast Guard cutter that had drifted out of position and gathering thousands of soldiers and ordering them to cheer his arrival, instead of the traditional standing-at-attention during the playing of "Hail to the Chief." Of course, it was merely a coincidence that the planning for the trip to Ft. Polk to be photographed in front of the cheering soldiers started only a week earlier, after the latest flap over Bush's failure to show for his National Guard service started to heat up. And the White House press secretary is shocked! shocked! that anyone might think otherwise.