My Name is George W.

In all the armchair analysis of President Bush, there's one thing we can't forget. The president has more in common with Bill W., the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, than just an initial.

President Bush used to be a guy who didn't know when to quit. Someone who took the wheel when he shouldn't have. Who got sloppy and said things he'd regret later. A drunk.

Maybe, like most drunks, he was trying to fill a void. To replace doubt and fear with a sense that everything was going to be all right, as long as you keep drinking.

Like Bill W., Bush beat alcoholism by turning his life over to a higher power. But no one knows what ultimately made him go to God. Some people find religion even though they know that God is impossible, that the notion of God is absurd. These people believe anyway, out of faith -- the sense that believing in God is right no matter how little sense it makes.

Others believe just because they're scared. They want some protection against the fear and doubt, or they're afraid to find out what happens if you die without believing. And they find that having God at your back is a powerful thing, even stronger than booze. You can shoot your mouth off, throw a punch, start a war. And there's no such thing as a God hangover, so you don't have to call anyone the next day and apologize.

Bush has traded the opium of the frat boy for the opium of the masses. But alcoholics are never really cured, and he's still a drunk. It's just that now he's drunk on Christ, and off on the bigger bender of his life.