by TChris

In the Bush administration, image is everything. The administration always hopes that voters won't notice the disconnect between image and reality, so it shouldn't be surprising that the President is rarely on the bus as he makes his celebrated bus tour of Ohio.

The dirty little secret of President Bush's bus tour is that he didn't spend much time on the bus. An hour or so on Tuesday was all he logged, though that seemed plenty for the startled residents of some small towns in rural parts of Ohio, who had never seen a motorcade quite like this one. After all, it is not every day you see three buses moving along on back roads, preceded and followed by Chevy Suburbans carrying men with large guns, and helicopters overhead. One woman who was mowing her lawn ran indoors, leaving the lawn mower idling in her yard.

Since the President's reelection efforts are impeding traffic and scaring the locals, it's probably a good thing that he isn't on the bus all that often. The best take comes from Craig Kilborn:

"President Bush has traded in Air Force One for this customized bus to campaign in the swing states of Ohio and Michigan. Nothing convinces people that the economy's good like a President riding the bus."