Bush and the Bird

In the most widely published image from his Thanksgiving day trip to Baghdad, the beaming president is wearing an Army workout jacket and surrounded by soldiers as he cradles a huge platter laden with a golden-brown turkey. ... But as a small sign of the many ways the White House maximized the impact of the 2 1/2-hour stop at the Baghdad airport, administration officials said yesterday that Bush picked up a decoration, not a serving plate.

At first this was kind of depressing/amusing in the way that so much of the news is lately.

But then I started thinking about how easy this is to talk about, yet hard to take seriously. I mean, so what, the bird was fake. So what, the British Airways conversation never happened. Yeah it sucks and it's stupid and the National Review would have been all over Clinton if he did it (as it should be).

When you're trying to tell someone why you're outraged, some things are easier to explain than others, and the turkey thing is an easy example but it certainly isn't your whole case. The whole case is hard to explain.