Bush Weeps, Ages

Drudge is top-linking this Reuters photo of President Bush at the Medal of Honor ceremony for Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who gave his life in Iraq by leaping on a grenade to save other members of his patrol.

It's certainly touching, but it also reminded me of a book I saw once called The Mortal Presidency, which (as the person reading it was good enough to summarize for me, saving me untold hours of reading) was about the physical toll the burden of the Presidency has taken on past Presidents, particularly wartime Presidents.  There was a section that showed side-by-side comparisons of various Presidents, each pair taken only a few years apart, but during which the subject appeared to age immensely.

The above candid is obviously not the most flattering shot, but it makes for a drastic comparison with his boyish turn-of-the-millennium mug.

(Interestingly, I came upon the picture at the link through a "Bush 2000" image search that led me to a year-ago post over at Karol's in which she was making a similar comparison.)