BACK WHEN IT HAPPENED, I criticized Bush’s flight-suited appearance on the Abraham Lincoln. But I think that Rogers Cadenhead makes too much of Bush’s “Commander-in-Chief” jacket. Bill Clinton had one of those too, which you can see him wearing in this CNN gallery of images from a Clinton aircraft-carrier visit — it’s not, as Cadenhead suggests, a Bush innovation. I believe that dislike for Bush has led Cadenhead (and Dana Milbank, whom he quotes) to forget that.

Bush’s jacket is, however, kind of lame. I like Clinton’s leather jacket better. A Buzz Rickson’s in black nylon would be cooler still, of course. At least to us geeks.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Just thought I’d note that the left’s idea of a perfect President – Josiah Bartlett of The West Wing – also had a Commander in Chief jacket. He used to wear it all the time in the episodes where he traveled on Air Force One or on the weekends around the White House.

I’ve never watched more than a few minutes of The West Wing, but this seems to be right. Meanwhile — pace Milbank — here’s Ronald Reagan in a C-in-C jacket, and here’s Bush 41. And a reader sent a link to a picture of Jimmy Carter similarly garbed, but it wouldn’t open.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hey, it’s Bobby Kennedy in one of these! And he was just the brother-in-chief. And reader Edward Christie found this picture of Carter in the National Archives, though their setup doesn’t allow direct linking.

ONE MORE: Jeez, don’t start with me on the carrier landing again. I think that subsequent events bore out my judgment that it was a mistake, and did more harm than good. I seem to recall Tommy Franks suggesting that it was aimed not so much at domestic political audiences — as everyone thought at the time — as at convincing the Europeans that the war was over so they’d come in and help. Judged on that basis, I guess it wasn’t any more of a success. It was a Rovian misstep, though obviously not a fatal one.

And Dean Esmay has still more photos of various presidents in military garb.