Mister Bush's recent series of unseemly merriments in public places, including singing a song, tap dancing, and other ebullient anomalies, brings a remark from Ms Dowd:

"Maybe the president is just putting on a good face to keep up American morale, the way Herbert Hoover did after the crash of Õ29, when he continued to dress in a tuxedo for dinner.

Or maybe the old Andover cheerleader really believes his own cheers, and that prosperity will turn up any time now, just like the W.M.D. in Iraq.

Or perhaps itÕs a Freudian trip. Now that heÕs mucked up the world and the country, he can finally stop rebelling against his dad and relax in the certainty that the Bush name will forever be associated with crash-and-burn presidencies.

Whatever the explanation, itÕs plumb loco."