Michael Winship, Writers Guild of America Award winner and former writer with Bill Moyers, wrote this column for the Messenger Post Newspapers in upstate New York. Maybe, like me, you were totally distracted by the president having that photo op with the finalists from "American Idol." Especially that moment when he mistook Simon Cowell for Tony Blair. Don't laugh. According to? The Washington Post , last spring, at a White House meeting to discuss immigration, President Bush confused New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez with Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, his former secretary of housing and urban development. As the president would say, s#*% happens. But, seriously, it's your civic duty to pay attention and not let yourself be bamboozled by photo ops and other manifestations of the administration's sleight of hand.