George W. Bush’s Andover old boy attitude with an Irish interviewer, and Todd C. Murray‘s comment upon it, reminded me of my second favorite piece of young Bush lore: the branding.

When I first heard that Bush had defended, and in the New York Times, the branding of members of his frat, it seemed like another hilarious example of the man’s astounding ability to manipulate his public image. How could an Andover/Yalie old-boy with a Connecticut Senator (and possibly Nazi profiteer) grandfather and a former President father position himself as a Washington outsider?

Now, after Abu Ghraib and post-Guantanamo it just seems revelatory.

Here’s the original article: