Four More Months?

"Of course, it was 1776 when representatives of the original 13 colonies issued the Declaration of Independence from the Britain of her distant ancestor George III. Only two centuries later did the present monarch travel here, to participate in the lavish bicentennial celebrations.

"As he realised his error, America's current King George looked somewhat sheepishly at her. She looked back at him from under her hat. Whether she was amused or not was impossible to say. But Mr Bush rescued himself with deft self-deprecation: 'She gave me a look only a mother could give a child,' he said to much laughter."

Here's the transcript.

William Lowther of the Daily Mail, however, observed what appeared to be Bush's highly inappropriate follow-up to his verbal slip: "When you've just made it sound like the Queen is more than 200 years old, there may be a few ways of recovering from the gaffe.

"But turning to her and giving her a sly wink is probably not included in any book of royal etiquette.

"That's what happened yesterday after George Bush mangled his greeting to the Queen on her state visit to the U.S."

And yes, the Daily Mail does have a photo.

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post: "In the days before yesterday's state visit, the talk was all about how the regular-guy president disliked all the pomp that comes with a royal function. Don't believe it. As they say in Texas: Balderdash and poppycock. . . .

"The queen would not bicker with him about the Baghdad security plan, and there would be no prickly news conference in which he would be asked about the Newsweek poll putting his support at 28 percent, equal to Jimmy Carter's in 1979. Yesterday gave Bush a chance to put aside the messiness of being head of government and enjoy the trappings of being head of state: cannons on the Ellipse, an Army fife-and-drum corps, a troop review and red geraniums on the South Portico. . . .

"The informal Bush enjoyed the formality so much that he even took time out to torment an underdressed photographer. After his walk with the queen after lunch, Bush got the photographer, Newsweek's Charles Ommanney, to agree that it was 'a special day' at the White House. 'Then why,' the president asked, 'didn't you wear something other than hand-me-down clothes?'"

The Big Dinner

Neely Tucker and Roxanne Roberts write in The Washington Post: "The most elegant Washington evening in a decade, last night's state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, took place on a velvet-smooth night that made Washington appear more beautiful, a little softer around the edges, than it might actually be.

"President Bush, who his wife said had to be talked into hosting his first white-tie dinner, appeared to love it.