Truth is "The Stranger"

Not sure if you have noticed this one or not, but President George Bush recently listed The Stranger by Albert Camus as one of the books he's read on his summer vacation. Slate muses about the possible "geopolitical literary misinterpretation" of Bush's choice of a book in which the main character remorselessly kills an Arab on a sandy beach.

When asked about Bush's choice, press secretary Tony Snow said Bush "found it an interesting book and a quick read. I don't want to go too deep into it, but we discussed the origins of existentialism."

If I could dismiss the doubt that Bush actually chose The Stranger as his summer reading, I think his choice demonstrates some insight into the Bush brain. Somewhere, deep inside, Bush probably feels a kinship with Mersault, the books emotionless, regret-free hero.

In Bush, we have a man that lives without regret, that won't admit to mistakes, and is propelled along by the current of his questionable decisions. In the Slate article, John Dickenson wonders if Bush may have identified with The Stranger due to its "themes of angst, anxiety, and dread." But, if I remember the book correctly, Mersault feels none of those things. He's been shut down by anxiety, an emotional cripple who might want to feel something but cannot. For a man with a personal war that has killed thousands of Arabs, such an emotional state would be the only way he could sleep at night.