Those Damned Ketchup Labels!

According to today's All Things Considered, the Bush campaign covered all the Heinz ketchup labels with Bush/Cheney stickers at a recent New Hampshire picnic where George Bush spoke. Why not just pick some other brand name of ketchup?

In general, the Bush campaign has adopted an approach to mass meetings with the president which smacks of either Potemkin-type stagecasting (if you're a Liberal) or just a good business practice of controlling your brand name image ( if you're a Conservative). This approach consists of vetting the people very carefully; you can't just turn up for a Bush meet, no. You also can't ask nasty questions of the president. Only nice and grateful comments are appreciated.

The negative aspect of this policy is that the president is totally surrounded with happy and grateful yes-men and yes-women. I envy him that as the snakes are rather stoic in their expressions, but I don't envy him all the negative criticism he probably never hears about. It reminds me of another public figure similarly held in the dark about some uncomfortable facts, the last tzar of Russia, and we all know what happened to him.