It was a brilliant, decent, generous, crafty, glorious gesture. President Bush was nearly in tears when he saw the gratitude and excitement on the faces of the troops. Obviously this White House saw a political angle. But that was a side-benefit. The troops deserved it. The troops appreciated it. And the American people, I bet, believed it was the right thing to do.
The Democrats will make fools of themselves if they go too far criticizing Bush. In fact, I think they’ll make fools of themselves if they criticize him at all. They should just say, “It was a nice thing to do, our troops deserved it, in fact they deserve…blah blah blah.” But I wouldn’t be surprised if we get more flight jacket hysteria.