Peace of mind! I have no peace of mind.

These "Bush really cares about the families of slain troops but only behind closed doors" articles seem to come out just about this time before every election. In this case the Washington Post takes the idiocy to a new level by sticking a photo of Bush at Walter Reed meeting with an injured soldier directly under the caption "In private meetings with families, he expresses his sorrow for losses."

I'm not sure "private" covers photo-ops but that's just me.

There's the typical nonsense about Bush actually being privately anguished about the war in Iraq and the U.S. losses, with no effort at all made by the Post writer to connect this private anguish with Bush's public indifference. That's without even attempting to square our policy and Bush's stubborn insistence on staying the course which looks more like vanity than sensible strategy at this point. No- the writer takes the White House spinmeisters at their word when they say casualty figures are the first thing he asks for when he wakes up in the morning.

Sure he does.

But really what stands out for me is this little bit which is supposed to show the President as reflective but just makes him look creepy:

Bush deals with stress through vigorous exercise, working out six days a week. When he goes for long bicycle rides, he often invites others to join him, but he asks them not to ride in front of him so he can have the illusion of solitude. "Riding helps clear my head, helps me deal with the stresses of the job," he told reporters last month after an 80-minute ride.