It wasn't awesome, it was a predictably safe, sanitized photo op. The current obsession on the cable news channels with how the plane landed, and how Dubya snuck out the back door of the ranch, and how "historic" the handful of journalists who were taken on board (and in) by the Bushites on Air Force One felt the "mission" was, isn't even being watched by anyone but the Bush loyalists--remember, Washington is empty this weekend, so it is always an excruciatingly slow and dull news cycle for the DC pundits and DC news junkies.

The rest of the nation has been ignoring the news, watching football, gorging themselves, and shopping all weekend. Everyone knows Bush went to visit the troops, but it really didn't register much on the political radar. It was expected by all the pundits that Bush would do something this weekend to show appreciation for the troops because a) that's his job as commander in chief, and if he had done nothing but drive the truck around the ranch, there would have been a firestorm of criticism from every political direction, and b) because that was the Bush White House plan of the week: end the nagging criticism that this commander in chief is disengaged from the troops and ignoring the hard side of his war. That is why he had his aides round up the families of some of the war dead, and bring them to the White House this week. Not out of sincerety, in my opinion, but to try and regain the moral high ground during the otherwise ignored Thanksgiving news cycle.

And no visits to the wounded yet, either don't forget. They remain totally ignored.

And then there are these tokens of the Bush administration's appreciation and esteem for their beloved boys (and a few token girls) in uniform:

With 130,000 soldiers still in the heat of battle in Iraq and more fighting and dying in Afghanistan, the Bush administration sought this year to cut $75 a month from the "imminent danger" pay added to soldiers' paychecks when in battle zones.

The administration sought to cut by $150 a month the family separation allowance offered to those same soldiers and others who serve overseas away from their families. Although they were termed "wasteful and unnecessary" by the White House, Congress blocked those cuts this year, largely because of Democratic votes.

This year's White House budget for Veterans Affairs cut $3 billion from VA hospitals—despite 9,000 casualties in Iraq and as aging Vietnam veterans demand more care. VA spending today averages $2,800 less per patient than nine years ago.

The administration also proposed levying a $250 annual charge on all Priority 8 veterans—those with "non-service-related illnesses"—who seek treatment at VA facilities, and seeks to close VA hospitals to Priority 8 veterans who earn more than $26,000 a year.

Until protests led to a policy change, the Bush administration also was charging injured GIs from Iraq $8 a day for food when they arrived for medical treatment at the Fort Stewart, Georgia, base where most injured are treated.

In mid-October, the Pentagon, at the request of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, announced plans to shutter 19 commissaries—military-run stores that offer discounted food and merchandise that helps low-paid enlisted troops and their families to get by—along with the possiblility of closing 19 more.

At the same time, the Pentagon also announced it was trying to determine whether to shutter 58 military-run schools for soldiers' children at 14 military installations.

The White House is seeking to block a federal judge's award of damages to a group of servicemen who sued the Iraqi government for torture during the 1991 Gulf War. The White House claims the money, to come from Iraqi assets confiscated by the United States, is needed for that country's reconstruction.

The administration beat back a bipartisan attempt in Congress to add $1.3 billion for VA hospitals to Bush's request of $87 billion for war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In perhaps its most dangerous policy, the White House is refusing to provide more than 40,000 active-duty troops in Iraq with Kevlar body armor, leaving it up to them and their families to buy this life-saving equipment. This last bit of penny-pinching prompted Pentagon critic and Vietnam veteran Col. David Hackworth to point to "the cost of the extraordinary security" during Bush's recent trip to Asia, which he noted grimly "would cover a vest for every soldier" in Iraq.