A few observations on the Bush Funeral and Internment.

Over the years, I have been directly involved in the coverage of two state funerals of presidents and wrote copy in real-time for a third.

Reporting at street level, you simply repeat the reactions offered by mourners and others who turn out to witness history.

Writing about such events you hit the major points-- both highs and lows, that capture the decedent's role in history.

For Nixon, Opening China and Watergate, for Ford, leaving Vietnam and pardoning Nixon, for Reagan beating Communism but being late on AIDS and ignoring cities.

In recent years, since leaving news, I have worked for three former members of Congress. One is fond of saying "people vote for candidates they like to believe are like themselves."

I believe that. Each of us is flawed, and none of us welcome being judged by any single act or several acts that define only part of who we are.

In real life, I have known people who raised hell for years, and showed many their nasty sides, only to become loving, caring people to their families. Some have worked for years or decades to reinvent themselves and reform their images.

Funerals are a time to focus on those things worth remembering. They may be sentimental and often will ignore the flaws and scars and even the pain the dead inflicted in life.

But beyond those brief moments of goodbye, true history remains. From unrealized ideals, to outright failures to quiet successes and idyllic victories, the memories left capture the departed individual.

Perhaps my former boss, the congressman was right. People do vote for those they see as most like themselves. However flawed, like us, perhaps they tried, and changed and tried again. Who judges that best, not man or woman, but God.