With his approval rating plunging to a dismal 36%--this was a few days before the Hurricane Katrina debacle--Bush took to the reddest of red states, Utah and Idaho, in an attempt to shore up his falling numbers. Iraq was turning into an embarrassing quagmire; people were starting to call it another Vietnam. Worse still was a personal embarrassment: Cindy Sheehan, a mother whose son had been killed in Iraq, had taken up a vigil outside his Crawford, Texas ranch, where the President was taking a much-needed five week vacation--his first since April--from the rigors of office. Ms. Sheehan wanted Mr. Bush to explain to her why her son had to die. Even massive character assassination by conservative TV pundits couldn't drive her away. (Attending her critically ill mother did take her away for a week, but other Gold Star mothers took up the vigil.) Something dramatic was needed, like landing on the deck of a carrier in a fighter jet.

The resourceful Mr. Bush found an answer. In a speech to members of the Idaho National Guard he revealed a "counter-mother": Tammy Pruitt, a woman who has four sons serving in Iraq, and a fifth son and husband recently returned from that cauldron of democracy. Mr. Bush quoted Mrs. Pruitt as saying, "I know that if something happens to one of the boys they would leave this world doing what they believe...and I guess you couldn't ask for a better way of life than giving it for something that you believe in." Mr. Bush added, "America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruitts."

It promised to be a great "mom-off", until Hurricane Katrina pushed everybody from the stage. Still, if Bush believes so strongly in sacrifice, perhaps he should send those cute military-age daughters of his to Iraq. Then he could quote himself.