Have You Ever Seen The Stranger?

I guess there's a campaign underway in the White House to make Americans think that Pres. Bush is literate. We're not buying it, Tony.

It is being reported today that Bush has had to put down his summer reading, Albert Camus' "The Stranger" and a biography of Lincoln, to concentrate on the top three crisis at hand: Lebanon, UK terrorists, and the war in Iraq.

But MSNBC reports that Bush has finished Camus' "The Stranger" and found it a quick read. Then he discussed existentialism with his aides, including Tony Snow.

He read Albert Camus's The Stranger, triggering a discussion about existentialism with his aides. "He found it an interesting book and a quick read," said Mr Snow. "I don't want to go too deep into it, but we discussed the origins of existentialism."

Bush, who has demonstrated scorn for the literate, has boasted about declining to read the daily newspapers, was advised by someone in his White House literati cabal, to read Camus' "The Stranger."