Happy Birthday George

The census department reports that 7918 of the oldest baby boomers will turn 60 each day in 2006. We know that George Bush has been thinking about this round birthday, the BIG 6-O, a lot. He keeps talking about it in that self deprecating good old boyish way he has.

I've got a few good years under my belt until I look 60 in the face, so I can't exactly relate and no birthday, no number has bothered me yet. I don't think George is really bothered by it, although he does appear wistful at times for those 60 years gone by.

The actual birthday celebration was low key with his daughters Jenna & Barbara preparing what one attendee called a very cute and light- hearted video of some highlights and low lights of their daddy's career.

Physically, he doesn't show the outward appearances of decline that many of his predecessors have. Doris Kearns Goodwin, the historian and former aide to Lyndon B. Johnson.

"You don't see a drawn look. It's as if somehow he has psychologically not allowed the burdens to fully get to him. Maybe it's the exercise, maybe it's his sureness about his own decisions."

Maybe he doesn't understand the magnitude of damage he has wrought with his Presidency. I'll say that he thinks he cares, but I don't think he has the capacity to care. While he will likely enjoy the long lifespan that he inherited from his family, there are 2539 soldiers who were killed in Iraq and who will not celebrate a birthday this year. There are 2539 families who will not bake a birthday cake and will instead mark that birthday with a visit to a cemetery or in quiet reflection for what might have been.

There are also nearly 19,000 soldiers who have been wounded in Iraq. What do their birthdays mean to them? Happy to be alive? Possibly. Wondering how to adjust to this new normal as their old life exploded one day in Iraq? Definitely.

While George Bush contemplates the rest of his presidency and his life on this round birthday; my birthday wish for him is that he would have an epiphany and wonder how he can spend the rest of his life atoning for his sins and those of his administration. He'd make a list of all the people he wronged in his life, kind of like Earl on "My Name is Earl", except George's list would be much longer and he has many more people to make nice to. It's a good thing the Bush genetics will give him a long enough life for this atonement. (a girl can dream, can't she?)