Over at TNR, Ryan Lizza nicely captures the pervasive sense of unreality that seems to surround (and, increasingly, to define) the Bush reelection effort:

[S]pending time on the trail with Bush is like being transported to a parallel universe. The only music is Christian rock and country tunes about plain-talking everymen. The only people who ask the president questions are his most feverish supporters, never the press. In this alternate universe, Iraq and Afghanistan are marching effortlessly toward democracy. The economy is, in the words of former Broncos quarterback John Elway, who introduces Bush in Greenwood Village, "the best in the world." John Kerry, whose platform is to the right of Clinton's in 1992, is calling for a massive expansion of government. Meanwhile, Bush's two most radical ideas, the ones that House Republicans privately insist will top the agenda in Washington next year if Bush wins--a shift toward privatizing Social Security that will cost at least a trillion dollars and a move toward a flat tax--are mentioned only in passing, buried in a laundry list of minor proposals.

I'm not sure which is more worrisome, really -- the fact that Ken Kesey appears to be driving the Bush campaign bus, or the unmistakable sense one sometimes gets that the president and his merry prankster cabinet have been tossing back the Kool Aid. Either way, though, one thing is clear: If you like the results that this unwillingness or inability to face reality has produced on Iraq and terrorism and jobs and education and healthcare and the environment and more, you need to cast your vote for the guy sitting up there at the front of the bus with a glass in his hand.

Otherwise, these two gentlemen would sincerely appreciate a moment of your time to discuss a few matters of national importance.

NOTE: Obviously, the "glass in his hand" above is simply a bloggerly attempt to close the circle on the Acid Test reference, and not a cheap shot about the president's reported problems in another life. I haven't gotten into that kind of stuff in the past, and have no intention of doing so now or in the future. Which isn't to say that the issue is or should be off limits for any other blogger, commentator, or voter; as with Bill Clinton's somewhat tangled personal history, it's a question that each person has to weigh for him or herself.

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