Not Your Sweetie

If It's Not About Shut-Ins, the President Is
Otherwise Engaged

By Dana Milbank (excerpts)

Tuesday, December 31, 2002; Page A15 Washington Post

CRAWFORD, Tex. -- It's New Year's Eve. Do you know where your
president is?

President Bush has been seldom seen in the waning days of 2002. On
Friday, while North Korea was spreading nuclear panic in Asia, a White
House spokesman announced that the president spent the morning
"clearing brush" and then went jogging; yesterday it was fishing and
more brush clearing.





All of which raises various questions. With all the time the president has spent clearing
brush, how is it possible that there is still any brush left on his ranch? And what is he doing
about North Korea's nuclear shenanigans?

snip

This president, it would seem, has been engaged more often than Elizabeth Taylor.

The attestations of Bush's private engagement appear to be proffered in inverse proportion
to Bush's public engagement in a subject.

The president's isolation on his ranch and at Camp David may explain his peculiar affinity for
citizens he calls the "shut-ins." Probably no group has received more attention in presidential
rhetoric this year. snip

A collection of his recommendations:

"You can go to a shut-in's home and say, 'I love you.' "

"If you want to help this country, go across the street to a shut-in's house and say, 'What
can I do to help you?' "

"You can serve something greater than yourself by just walking across the street to a
shut-in and saying, 'I love you; is there anything I can do to make your day better?' "

Find "somebody shut-in and [say] 'I think I'm going to spread a little love today.' "

"[Find] somebody who's shut-in and [say], 'I'd like to just love you for a second.' "

Is it possible that Bush, so often homebound himself, has come to see himself as a shut-in?