The Perfect Turkey

The Washington Post reports the picture-perfect turkey George W. Bush held in front-page photos of his Thanksgiving jaunt to Baghdad was actually a decoration. Instead of being served slices of the golden-brown bird by the President, troops were served from cafeteria steam trays. "White House officials do not deny that they craft elaborate events to showcase Bush, but they maintain that these events are designed to accurately dramatize his policies and to convey qualities about him that are real," the Post writes. "This was effective, because it captured something about the president that people know is true, that he really cares about the soldiers and gets emotional when he sees them," Mary Matalin, a former administration official, said about the trip to Baghdad. "You have to figure out how to capture the Bush we know, even if it doesn't come through in a speech situation or a press conference. He regularly rejects anything that is not him." In a related development, the White House has changed its story that there had been an exchange between a British Airways pilot and Air Force One as it flew to Baghdad. British Airways denied that its pilots had contacted Air Force One. In response, White House communications director Dan Bartlett said he'd left the wrong impression, telling reporters that the British Airways pilot had actually radioed the tower in London. British Airways again denied the story, telling media "that none of its pilots has come forward to acknowledge either making or overhearing the purported conversation."