President Bush spent his Thanksgiving in Baghdad this year, much to the bewilderment of the American press back home. White House officials told the press Bush would be spending Thanksgiving at his ranch in Texas, and didn’t learn of the President’s surprise visit to Iraq until Air Force One was already in the air, heading back to the States. Bush didn’t arrive at his ranch until early Friday morning.

With the visit, Bush became the first president to step foot on Iraqi soil. Once there, Bush read a morale-boosting message to American soldiers, dished out some mashed potatoes as part of a Thanksgiving meal, and, along with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, met with members of the Iraqi governing council.

A trip such as this one required the highest degree of secrecy and security, and the President himself has said that he was skeptical of the trip’s success. This leads people to wonder why he even attempted the trip to begin with. The simple fact is, the trip will prove to be a huge ratings boost for the President. With the 2004 election right around the corner, the timing of Bush’s trip to Iraq makes the whole thing seem like one big public relations move.

Only a handful of reporters and photographers were privy to the information regarding Bush’s trip. This, along with the hectic nature of the holiday season, resulted in an otherwise lack of coverage of the event. The same wire photo was used on several websites and newspapers the following day, showing the President holding a Thanksgiving turkey, strolling through a crowd of soldiers wearing an Army jacket on his back and a huge smile on his face.

This image is exactly what President Bush needs to boost his campaign for the upcoming election – a campaign which has received a great deal of flack in recent weeks for the steadily increasing number of Iraqi casualties since the war ended back in May. By sneaking to Baghdad, boosting the morale of the troops, and sneaking back to Texas, Bush has given his hopes of reelection a great boost from a PR standpoint.

In recent weeks, Gallup polls have shown Bush losing ground in public opinion. This is due in large part to, as several television and print reporters have put it, the “mishandling of the post-Iraq situation” and the fact that troops overseas were said to be losing morale. By visiting Iraq on Thanksgiving, Bush was trying to prove to the American public that everything in Iraq is under control.

The situation in Iraq is clearly the biggest Achilles heel for Bush heading into the election year. Visiting the country will undoubtedly change some people’s opinion of not only Bush, but the whole Iraqi conflict as well. But will it be enough? Can one trip make up for the hundreds of lives lost since the war started?

Time will tell what will happen, but the trip is a clear indicator that the election is less than a year away. PR moves such as this one will certainly become a common occurrence in the months to come.

Information from cnn.com was used in the editorial.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Massachusetts Daily Collegian Editorial Board.