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Great! I'm sure he'll appreciate seeing what he missed (one of those happy-sad deals).

Thanks for the 4th of July post Gem. I always love FR on our national holidays. It's like going to a hometown celebration w/o leaving the house. And I'll post a pic of my favorite war memorial - the Korean War - in DC mall.

and the WW2 memorial

The most impressive thing I have noticed about President Bush is when he visits a military base, he is always surrounded by enlisted men and low level officers. It is just the way he does things. It is a reflection of those he thinks are important to the success of a task.

You don't see many generals in pictures with Dubya. It is always the guys on the ground. The guys who actually risk their necks are the ones who receive his thanks and appreciation.

The biggest difference I see between George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, is Clinton went to places to receive praise. President Bush always goes to give praise to others. And it is not the Generals who get the public praise. It is the guys on the ground who are risking their lives.

A huge side benefit is the effect this has on voters. If you were Karl Rove how would you counteract the Democrat attack that says, "Bush lied! Men died!" President Bush and his spokespersons could deny it a thousand times and change no minds.

But consider the subliminal message of pictures in the press of President Bush with a group of troops who have been in the very heat of the battle in Iraq. They are just ordinary soldiers who obviously like the president. More importantly the pictures show he likes and respects them. The pictures don't lie. They certainly don't look like men who believe, "Bush lied. My buddy died!" The pictures refute such charges with out saying a word.

If voters are interviewed they don't understand why they don't believe the charges. They just don't believe them. They have to measure the opinions of those who saw the pictures against those that didn't to clearly see the effect. But it is effective.

Karl Rove said when the Iraqi war started that the president would have to defeat Saddam and our media. He said he intended to do both. As Lee Atwater proved, the media can be beaten. Atwater proved in 1980 that a positive picture of Reagan was always worth a 1000 negative words. The same is true today.

The primary difference between Presidents Bush and Reagan is Lee Atwater planned the photo ops and got Reagan to do them. I think it is very likely that President Bush said, "The troops at Fort Bragg have done a lot for this nation. I need to go thank them on the 4th." All Rove has to say is, "Mr President... My thoughts exactly!"