http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07012/753296-153.stmPresident Bush is fond of making comparisons between his governance of the nation during the war and Lincoln's stewardship of the republic during the Civil War.
He believes history will treat him better than his contemporaries who are, after all, bedeviled by the excruciating reality of the here-and-now.
Two nights ago while pleading with the nation to give his failed Iraq policies a chance to succeed by yet another infusion of blood and treasure, Mr. Bush assumed a haunted countenance.
Perhaps he found himself transported to Lincoln's era in a blaze of terrible insight. Perhaps he finally saw his own John Wilkes Booth lurking in the shadows of Ford's Theater waiting to ambush him.
If we're lucky, the fear in Mr. Bush's eyes was the faint glimmer of a conscience finally kicking in -- a belated but dim realization of the sacrifice he has asked the nation to assume until the next president takes the oath of office in January 2009.