Scripting Counts

"Thank very much for everything. I like you." --Sgt. Maj. Akeel Shaker Nassir, Iraqi in charge of the Army Training Facility in Tikrit, to George Bush last night.

The publicity event itself was pretty creepy: the soldiers being interviewed all looked like little kids who had been told they could go to the circus if they were polite to the visitor, and the President seemed to stumble over his own talking points. But what was fascinating and sad was the video that went out of one of Bush's press handlers drilling the soldiers on what they were to say and how they were to react to the President's comments.

For a faith-based presidency, it seems to have very little faith in anyone or anything that hasn't been scripted and rehearsed. Even then...