Staying in the bubble

The reality based Dan Froomkin shows why he's under fire and reports that George W. Bush became the first president ever to not attend the White House's own Conference on Aging. He avoided what would have been a hostile crowd and instead:

Bush held a photo-op with a hand-picked group of seniors at a swanky retirement home -- and it was well covered by the usual suspects.

Froomkin points out this was not mentioned in the MSM but was left to NPR.

Julie Rovner reported on NPR's All Things Considered: "The once-a-decade White House Conference on Aging is meeting in Washington this week, with the future of Medicare high on its agenda. Medicare was on President Bush's agenda Tuesday, too. But he skipped the White House conference -- making him the first president not to speak to delegates in the event's half-century history.

"While the conference on aging delegates was meeting in a hotel uptown, the White House motorcade set out in the opposite direction, to Greenspring Village, a high-end gated retirement community in suburban Virginia. . . .

"The White House team handpicked the seniors who met with President Bush at the closed meeting."

Thank God for Dan Froomkin, one of the few that can be counted on to bring us the news.