Incredible Shrinking President

There are rumors out there that the President's remarks last night weren't even live. Then again, neither was the crowd. And while Bush was missing in action in St. Paul, so was any mention of him from the other speakers on the dais.

We just checked all the full texts of the speeches from last night's festivities that are on the GOP convention's official Web page. The word "Bush" appears exactly zero times. The word "president" doesn't appear anywhere in connection with Bush.

Quite a trick, making the most powerful man in the world disappear. Of course, it's an imperative when he's out there saying batshit crazy nonsense like this:

President Bush said Tuesday that while it’s too early to assess Hurricane Gustav’s damage to U.S. oil infrastructure off the Gulf Coast, the storm should prompt Congress to OK more domestic oil production.

“One thing is for certain, when Congress comes back, they’ve got to understand that we need more domestic energy, not less,” Bush said in the Roosevelt Room. “One place to find it is offshore America - lands that have been taken off the books, so to speak, by congressional law - and now they need to give us a chance to find more oil and gas here at home.”

Yes, nothing says "we need to set up more offshore oil rigs" more than dangerous storms off the American coastline that threaten oil rigs. Good thinkin', Mr. President!

Of course, McCain has swallowed this anti-environment drill now rhetoric whole, and the Palin pick just proves that. As Friedman says here (hey, sometimes he makes sense), "Palin’s much ballyhooed confrontations with the oil industry have all been about who should get more of the windfall profits, not how to end our addiction." If the next President needs to lead on fighting climate change then there's only one choice. And Bush and McCain are on the wrong side of history.

...also AWOL from the Republican confab - any talk of the economy. I guess there's no honor in it.