Frequent Talks, Limited Results

NYT reported Once every two weeks, sometimes more often, President Bush gathers with the vice president and the national security adviser in the newly refurbished White House Situation Room and peers, electronically, into the eyes of the man to whom his legacy is so inextricably linked: Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq. In sessions usually lasting more than an hour, Mr. Bush, a committed Christian of Texas by way of privileged schooling in New England, and Mr. Maliki, an Iraqi Shiite by way of political exile in Iran and Syria, talk about leadership and democracy, troop deployments and their own domestic challenges.

What is wrong with them talking. Does the NYT want us to stop talking to the man?

Sometimes, said an official who has sat in on the meetings, they talk about their faith in God.

Aha, now we see what upsets the NYT so much. The talk about God. Is the NYT afraid Maliki will get Bush to convert to Islam, or that Maliki will become a Christian? Or do they just get goosebumps when political leaders talk about faith.

“They talk about the challenges they face being leaders,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss private conversations. “They, of course, also share a faith in God.”