Smoke Screens and Mirrors
The illusionary president

Dan Froomkin (who has been under attack lately as "anti-Bush") has some interesting coverage of media coverage in his WP column Where the President Isn't . Below is his set-up to the reporters he quotes in his column on the Conference on Aging:

Here's a problem with following the president around all day long: Sometimes the story is where he's not.

Reporting that President Bush steered clear of the White House's own Conference on Aging yesterday -- making him the first president ever to do so -- fell to the regional newspapers and NPR, not the big guys.

It turns out that had Bush attended, he would have been facing a very hostile audience.

So instead, Bush held a photo-op with a hand-picked group of seniors at a swanky retirement home -- and it was well covered by the usual suspects.

I thought that Reagan was supposed to be our actor playing a president.