Opinion: More May Days
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Today marks a few other holidays that I missed. President Bush marked the National Day of Prayer by recounting how past presidents prayed, and sort of taking a few shots at himself:
[W]hen you think about our faith you can find it in the Pledge of Allegiance, you can find an expression of American faith in the Declaration of Independence, and you can find it in the coins in our pockets. I used to carry coins -- (laughter) -- in about 10 months I’ll be carrying them again. (Laughter and applause.) The fidelity to faith has been present in our nation’s leaders from its very start.... On John Adams’s first day in the White House, he wrote a prayer that is now etched in marble on the fireplace in the State Dining Room, and he prayed, ‘May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.’ Now we’ll leave it to the historians to judge whether or not that happened throughout our history. (Laughter.)
Bush also made a speech appreciating the start of Asian Pacific American History Month, and of course, made his Law Day proclamation.
And you wouldn’t know it from Bush’s speeches, but today marks the fifth anniversary of the unfurling of the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner. Hillary Clinton and even John McCain took the opportunity to lash out on war policy. Barack Obama said Clinton and McCain’s gas tax plans were gimmicks, like the sign.
Even if Bush was silent, press rep Dana Perino did comment on the banner yesterday. As USA Today reported:
‘President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said ‘mission accomplished’ for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission,’ White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. ‘And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year.’
Perino has my number.