George W. Bush has been piling up frequent-flier miles faster than a federal air marshal. Even on vacation, he had daily press conferences.

        We hear a lot about him. But as far as the national media are concerned, President Bush might as well be hiding in a cave. The same people who carefully report every comma from Osama almost never tell us what President Bush actually says because they're too busy telling us what they think it “means.”

Imaginary scandal

        Last Friday, Mr. Bush gave a speech in Stockton, Calif. We were told it was a futile fund-raiser for a Republican who will lose to California Gov. Gray Davis. We were even told that candidate Bill Simon's obscure connection to a corporate scandal “raised questions” about the tenuous scandals that liberals in the press desperately hope to find someday in the Bush administration.

        We were also told Mr. Bush has lost the initiative and no longer has the upper hand in his battle with Democrats because he won't articulate and defend his positions. We are told every day that he needs to tell us specifically what his plans are for war against Iraq, so the New York Times can report it to Saddam immediately.

        Surprise, surprise. I went to the White House Web site (www.whitehouse.gov) and found the complete text of his speech, unadulterated by ABC News. There was lots of plain talk on issues.

        He called for more logging so that forests don't become places where “kindling stacks up.”

        He whacked Congress for stalling construction jobs by blocking terrorism insurance.

        He defended his tax cuts and called for oil drilling at home, meaning Alaska. And he talked about patriotism.

Boos for Congress

        That stuff may be poison ivy to most liberals and environmentalists, but the crowd cheered like Buckeyes beating Michigan. And when Mr. Bush mentioned Congress, they drowned him in deafening boos — aimed at Democrats in Congress, not the president.

        This was a partisan crowd. But his approval ratings are 65 percent nationwide. Maybe that's because he says things like this, from his speech in Stockton:

        “No, out of the evil done to America is going to come some good, because Americans understand that being a patriot is more — is more than just saying the Pledge of Allegiance; being a patriot is serving something greater than yourself. We learned that lesson most profoundly on September the 11th, when citizens were flying across the country, or thought they were, on Flight 93. They realized their airplane was going to be used as a weapon to take life, perhaps in the nation's capital. They were on the phones and they told their loved ones they loved them — they used the word "love.' They said a prayer ... they said a prayer. One guy said, "Let's roll.' They drove the plane in the ground to serve something greater than themselves in life.”

        We don't need Peter Jennings to tell us what he thinks that means.

        E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.

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