LOL! That's a good one, W-fan, really! And you show a whole lot of naive gullibility for believing it, perfesser, because it was a political stunt, pure and simple!
I know this because of two important facts:
1. There is not one other recorded instance of a president in American history putting on a military uniform (in Bush's case, a Navy flight) suit and going to visit the troops. Check out the photos of Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, Truman, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan...even "Heckuva Job's" old man, "Read My Lips" and you won't find one photograph of a president out of a business suit.
2. The second reason I know it was a stunt is because I happen to have met a Sailor (now a retired aviation boatswainsmate CPO) who was on the Lincoln at the time. He told me Bush could have easily helicoptered out to the aircraft carrier as other presidents have in the past in meeting the crews of incoming naval surface combatants. But he wanted to come in making the "trap" and getting the photo op as if he'd been there, right in the middle of "Shock and Awe" air campaign as a combat pilot, giving it to the Iraqis who "disruspected mah daddy!"
Now, look, I told you I voted for both "Read My Lips" (even though he somehow was content to pull a stalemate out of an overwhelming victory against Saddam during Gulf War I) AND his uninspiring, incompetent son who has cause this nation I love much of my (and yours) future great-children's TARP debt. Still, I could almost forgive him of the mistakes he made; save one: THE ELECTION OF HUSSEIN!
2. Same answer as #1. The Commander in Chief clearly had fun flying the jet to the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Of course he could have flown a helicopter, but he loves to fly (as jet pilots do).
I notice there's a (small) cabal of Bush haters on this forum who keep blaming Bush for Obama. It's not historically accurate. It's based on emotions and not fact.
FACT - McCain was a very, very bad candidate who campaigned more against Bush than he did against Obama
FACT - the incessant media lies over 8 years, particularly about our mission in Iraq, beat down the President's approval numbers and resulted in a faux "Bush fatigue" (They also lied about the Mission Accomplished sign, and bashed the President for his "stunt" exactly as you just did. You and the left are on the same page quite often, aren't you?)
FACT - the media was slobbering over Obama, lying about him, covering up his sordid radical past
FACT - a whole lot of young'ns and some older folks had a whole lot of white guilt and voted for the black guy to assuage it.
FACT - there was a Democrat caused, suspicious financial collapse that was falsely blamed on Bush and McCain acted clueless about what to do
FACT - Obama was the cool guy, the American Idol candidate, and he succeeded in convincing a lot of young people to vote for him, even if they weren't leftists.
Those are just a few of the reasons we got a radical Marxist traitor in the White House.
Blaming Bush for it is baseless outside of personal feelings.
Now - if you get off your bogus Bush-is-the-devil kick here, maybe we can work together and get rid of the Marxist.
How about it?