W stands for...where?

Here's a key point about Bush's performance in the first debate, as noted by Josh Marshall:

"What occured to me ... was just how long it's been since President Bush had to face someone who disagrees with him or is criticizing. Every president gets tucked away into a cocoon to some degree. But President Bush does notoriously few press conferences or serious interviews. His townhall meetings are screened so that only supporters show up. And, of course, he hasn't debated anyone since almost exactly four years ago."

For a leader of a government which purports to be the leading avatar of democracy, such isolation is strikingly undemocratic.