Wayne Fields, director of American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis, said these moments help Bush relate to average Americans.
"The problem," he added, "is that in times of real crisis, people begin to think maybe you need somebody who is extraordinary."
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said the nature of the presidency precludes the idea that any occupant can be an average Joe.
"The office transforms you into a rarefied creature," she said.
This isn't a political statement, honest. I just wonder how often siblings' college professors are quoted back-to-back like this. Eh, Tracy?