I think all politicians have be be cowards a bit in order to retain any power at all. In many ways you can't blame them. It's what the stupid voting public demands.

Imagine if one of them told off the American public when they were becoming greedy and that, for the good of the world and the country, they had to give up their giant gas-guzzling SUV's. Imagine if one of them told us that in times of war, all of us had to sacrifice with higher taxes to pay for the armaments we're producing and the other costs of war. Imagine if the message out to the public was that in order for the costs of medical insurance to go down, we could start by not going to the doctor everytime we had a cold or a hangnail.

Nah, instead we're the most spoiled country on Earth. We want it all and we refuse to be talked hard to by our elected officials. We want our states to get windfalls every time some bill is passed. We may appear to support mavericks that stand up to their own parties and popular opinion from time to time but they often hit that glass ceiling and go no further.

Bush is just as much a coward. If he weren't he'd have a few more news conferences. Of course his handlers won't let him because they know he doesn't think fast on his feet. He wouldn't be afraid to fess up to some mistakes. He wouldn't be scared to put himself in harm's way and make appearances in the country he's invaded other than in safe and secure Christmas photo ops. They're all big chickens. Please don't apply a higher standard for Kerry than any of the other idiots.