Thanksgiving in Baghdad was a Bush master stroke

The simple fact of the matter is that presidents are political creatures. They don't get elected without being so.
Still, there's no doubt that some things a president does are more political than others. And some of those actions open a president to criticism.
But as far as President Bush's surprise trip to Baghdad to visit the troops on Thanksgiving Day goes, the president's political adversaries would be wise to let it go.
Quite a show
The images were striking. It was obvious that soldiers at Baghdad International Airport were not only surprised by the president's appearance, they were delighted.
And while the president's landing on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in fighter jet off the coast of California had gimmick written all over it, the trip to Iraq six months later had another dimension.
For one thing, the daring involved is bound to appeal to many Americans. They don't want their president behaving recklessly, but they don't want the leader of the free world to be a Caspar Milquetoast. The president dared to go to Baghdad, but he issued orders that if the mission put the president or those around him in imminent danger it should be scrubbed.
For another, Bush's trip sent a message that the president of the United States has the ability to travel into even the most hostile of territories if he puts his mind to it.
And most importantly, the trip was an obvious morale booster for the troops.
For at least one day, America's soldiers knew that they were not alone or forgotten. They knew that Bush could have spent his holiday with his family, enjoying a day of leisure. That he chose to make a grueling trip -- even in the comfort of Air Force One -- had to mean something to each of them.
This is not to say that administration policy or the very wisdom of U.S. involvement in Iraq cannot be questioned. Certainly the attempts by the administration to rewrite history in defining why we went to Iraq remains open to question.
Power of incumbency
But as for the trip, it was, among other things, a demonstration of the power of the incumbency. And the president's critics have to recognize that sometimes the president's use of his special power can be challenged. And sometimes it can't.
The trip to Baghdad clearly belongs in the latter category.
The press would do well to remember that as well. There was some carping about the White House misleading the press corps over the president's whereabouts.
Certainly we are not encouraging the White House to be deceitful. But to argue that the president's trip to Baghdad had to be announced in advance is foolish.
And it is not as if the trip were unprecedented.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was incommunicado for 10 days in January 1943 when he traveled to Casablanca, Morocco, for a meeting with British Prime Minster Winston Churchill. Soviet Premier Josef Stalin was supposed to be there too, but he stood up his two World War II allies.
We can't imagine a modern president of the United States disappearing for 10 days, but if one ever does we'll join the chorus of politicians and press who will be screaming for an explanation.
As for President Bush's Thanksgiving absence, he had a pretty good excuse.