A front page headline in Saturday's Washington Post read "For Bush in Last Year, It's the Principle".  The article discussed Bush's plan to push ahead "with proposals that appear to have last chance of passage".  What caught my attention was this passage, considered in light of the article's headline:

Presidential aides characterize Bush as intent on pursuing matters of principle, regardless of the polls.  Democrats accuse him of needless stubbornness at the expense of improving a battered economy and addressing other problems.

Standard "media balance"–Republicans say one thing, Democrats say another, you sort it out.  What caught my attention, though, was that the Republican talking point became the article's headline.  Someone reading the headline would think "wow, Bush is acting on principle."  In fact, that's only Bush's take on what he is doing–Democrats strongly disagree.  It's just that the Post accepted Bush's version as truth.

Given that Bush is a president who has approved torture and has offered constantly changng reasons for going to war in Iraq, I'm not sure why the Post chose to credit the administration's vision of Bush as a man f principle.  Here are some other ways they could have written the headline, without lending the administration's spin the aura of objective truth:

• "Bush Calls it "Principle", Democrats Say It's Stubbornness"
• "Bush and Democrats Clash as Administration Comes to a Close"

I might have gone with this:

• "Deeply Unpopular President Fights to Stay Relevant"

It wasn't just the front page headline– when you turn to page 6 to read the rest of the article in the print version, the secondary headline reads "Bush Resolute as Obstacles Grow."

This administration doesn't need to worry about PR–The Washington Post is glad to act as presidential stenographer, turning presidential spin into headlines.  Others might see Bush as a deeply unpopular president struggling to stay relevant–after all, a recent poll shows he's more unpopular than Nixon was just before he resigned.  To the Post, Bush is Gary Cooper n High Noon.