FIRST THE QUEEN, NOW THIS: Bush declines Obama invite to Thursday’s Ground Zero event. “Only two possibilities. One: Bush recognizes that this is, more or less, an Obama campaign commercial and would rather not be part of it. Two: Bush doesn’t want to encroach on the singular role that Obama, as president, should rightly have in leading the ceremonies marking Bin Laden’s demise. Given how gracious Dubya has been in retirement, does anyone doubt that the second explanation is correct? Needless to say, it was also gracious of The One to invite him.”

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Maybe Bush didn’t want to be dissed in person, the way Obama sandbagged the Supremes last year and Ryan this year.”