Bush Administration mouthpiece Tony Snow — who doesn’t know, will find out, will rephrase previously stated information, or just won’t play that ‘hindsight’ game — has been absent from his post for about a month while being treated for a recurrence of cancer.

In his absence, the daily press corps wrangling is being handled by his Deputy Dana Perino, a 34 year-old fast-talking bobbed-blonde. Her brief tenure has seen exemplary Bush controversies like the Scooter Libby verdict, the Walter Reed scandal, the US Attorney firings, and continuing societal chaos in Iraq (here for all the press briefings and gaggles ).

Given all that she’s had to deal with, I am impressed with Perino. She’s got a grace and humor that mitigates the frustration of her feigned ignorance. And instead of avoiding meaningful engagement by endlessly repeating the same snide official party line with slight variation, she says flat out: I’m not going to speculate on a wildly hypothetical situation at this time. I’m not going to comment on it. I just really don’t have any more information. I just don’t have a clue. And if she’s feeling generous, I believe that that would have been within the realm of possibility. Her upfront manner of bullshitting is quite refreshing.

In a bid to remind politicians that the typical American actually works for a living, a union for health care workers has invited all of the 2008 Presidential candidates to take part in the “Walk a Day in My Shoes” program.Yesterday John Edwards became the first candidate to take advantage of this prime publicity opportunity when he worked a shift alongside a $14-an-hour health care aid. Reportedly, Edwards found his slip-resistant, arch-supporting shoes to be quite comfortable.

Though there’s no doubt about Edwards’ motivations (Crown me thy populist!), the health care worker with whom he toiled seemed a little unclear on the concept, not realizing that she was the Poor Unfortunate that Edwards sought to bond with. Instead, the health care worker saw it as a chance to “educate the people who want to make decisions in the White House about what to do when they talk about health care.”

It may be naive to assert that America’s public health crisis can be solved by making politicans work in nursing homes, but in one 8-hour shift, John Edwards did more for health care than George W. Bush has in the past 6 years. Perhaps Bush should have tried serving breakfast and changing bed pans instead of cutting critical funding to Medicare and Medicaid, ignoring the growing numbers of uninsured, and opposing stem cell research. And dare I mention the war amputees? Is it too late to get Bush to walk a day in their shoes?