The Sacramento Bee boldly declares that Cindy Sheehan has put Crawford, Texas on the map:

There was a time when this place could have been the answer to a pretty darn good trivia question. And then, Cindy Sheehan came to town.

Just a month ago, Sheehan, the Vacaville mother of a soldier slain in Iraq, began a lonely, anguished vigil under the blazing Texas sun, encamped in a tent, estranged from her husband and largely ignored by the world.

What a difference a president’s vacation makes.

As President Bush winds up his monthlong stay at his ranch here, one thing has not changed: He has not granted Sheehan the face-to-face meeting she wants, her single mission since she pitched her tent in the grassy shoulder on Prairie Chapel Road, a few miles from Bush’s ranch.
What has changed is Crawford, population 750.

FOX News has interviewed the citizens of Crawford. They haven’t changed since their famous neighbor became President, insisting that the town is the same. Some are irritated by the traffic and the noise, some can’t wait for this to be over, a few are supportive of Cindy, etc., but I suspect any change is Crawford will prove to be momentary.

What caused the media world to descend upon Crawford, Texas this month? The MSM itself. This was an event created by a media thirsty for an anti-Bush story, something to report in a month noted for political dullness. (In 2001, they mobbed a California Democrat named Gary Condit. Remember him?)

The media itself is the story. They are fanning their own flames until the fuel runs out.

Remember, Cindy Sheehan hassling Tom DeLay from a bus in Houston – promised in the coming weeks – is not as sexy a story as a radical woman demanding a meeting which she always said that she’d never get. The demand was disingenuous, as is the story.