President Bush was traveling somewhere the other day and I saw a photo of him at just the right angle for the light to highlight his jaws. This is the first time I have noticed his jowls. Earlier photos don’t show jowls so I’m assuming that this is a fairly new development for Bush. They’re not large, full blown jowls - just small beginning jowls. Remembering something about jowls in Rose Rosetree’s “Wrinkles Are God’s Makeup” book, I head for bookshelf.

Here’s the book, now let’s see – flip, flip, flip – ah, here it is.

Jowls develop on people who previously had well-padded cheeks which is a marker for support of others. Jowls are a marker for a shift in the balance of power. That is, someone who used to have the support of others but now do not.

We would have to agree that Bush’s popularity has slipped in a big way in the last year or two. Jowls are the marker that he’s feeling it.