flickering pictures

There’s a reason President Bush almost never appears before members of the general public: They really don’t like him.

That’s Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post, and after seeing Bush get booed mercilessly by a stadium full of baseball fans as he goes out to throw the season’s ceremonial first pitch, you can’t help but think maybe he should have stayed home. That’s gotta sting.

More from the Post:

It was a rare moment for Bush, who avoids public expressions of disagreement by appearing almost exclusively before carefully selected audiences. In fact, this is the first time in years I can recall him appearing before the unscreened masses. Far more typical are events like his most recent Thanksgiving address. As I wrote then, even when he was talking about something as uncontroversial as the essential goodness of our country, he wanted his audience prescreened for obsequiousness.

Back during Bush’s Social Security barnstorming, University of Texas political scientist Jeffrey K. Tulis noted: “Certainly, in the past, presidential advance teams have on occasion taken steps to assure friendly audiences. It has not been uncommon for presidents to seek invitations to speak at friendly venues. But systematically screening audiences. . . . may be a new phenomenon, and one that the president should be asked to defend and justify in terms of his constitutional obligations.”

Truly, it’s one of the most blatant, indefensible examples of how Bush has turned his into the most divisive of presidencies.

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