George W. Bush is afraid of his own shadow. No president, it seems, has ever been this terrified of the American people, this hidden away or secretive, this evasive in speech and behavior. Not even Nixon, who at least faced the cameras, the reporters and the people even while his ship was going down.

But George W. Bush is so afraid of us that he can't bear to let us see him for what he is. Thus, his fear is projected as strength or resolve. Few are fooled any longer (and, if so, they are indeed fools). Sure as the Wizard of Oz cowered behind his curtain, our Commander in Chief is a coward.

Far be it from me to psychoanalyze why this is so. Maybe it's as simple as his subconscious mind telling him he didn't "win" either election, that he's not a "legitimate" president (I'm sure it goes far deeper than that). Regardless of why this is so, his actions as President speak volumes.

One could amass a quick case study just from the public records of the past six years: Bush spent his first few months in office hiding on his ranch, unable to face the enormous responsibilities of the Oval Office in person for longer than a few weeks at a time. When terrorists struck on 9/11, he froze in front of a classroom of tots, waiting for someone to tell him what to do. He flew out of harm's way and hid out for days before visiting the scenes of carnage. Bush has held the fewest press conferences of any president in modern history. Even when he does hold them, "journalists" like the male prostitute Jeff Gannon are "planted" in the audience to ask the easy questions (e.g. "How has your religious faith helped you in these times of peril, Mr. President?").

Too cowardly to fire his associates in person, he sends proxies like Karen Hughes and Karl Rove to do the job, or makes the lives of his maverick associates (like Paul O'Neill and Colin Powell) so miserable they resign, sparing him contact with people whose egos are more secure or less fractured than his own. He refused to meet with Cindy Sheehan outside his ranch in August 2005 (that and Katrina, soon thereafter, were the tipping points of his failed presidency). And so on.

Most recently, it has come to light that the White House has a manual that provides detailed instructions to staff about "deterring potential protestors" from his public appearances, a policy in place since Oct. 2002. (Which, therefore, no longer makes his appearances "public," but then Orwellian language rape is part of the coward's package too). At these "public" events, only ticket holders are allowed; those with tickets are carefully screened. If an "unscreened" person manages to get inside an event, "rally squads" are on hand to drown out lonely protesters ("USA! USA!") or shield them from Bush's eyes. Any protesters outside the venue are cordoned off far from the event or Bush's motorcade route. This, again, is to prevent the Chicken In Chief from having to see them. Thus, though America is inundated with anti-Bush bumperstickers, T-shirts, posters and billboards, there is a good chance Bush himself has never seen one of them.

Best (or worst) for last. In a last ditch effort to rally a hostile public to support the war in Iraq, Bush has begun a massive media campaign, called "Freedom's Watch." On all the campaign's ads, a phone number is provided to connect you with your "members of Congress."

My friend Nick called the number. This is his account:

A very young-sounding girl answered and rapidly said, "Thank you for calling Freedom's Watch. Do you feel that abandoning our mission in Iraq will increase the threat of terror?" I said, "No." She said, "Thank you," and hung up.

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