Bush....like a twelve year old doing wheelies on a stolen bike.

[democrank]

Could Bush`s actions be any more inappropriate? Name a disaster or crisis, national or international, and somewhere there is an unfitting, corresponding photo of George Bush. Bush grinning from ear to ear during the tsunami. Bush reading My Pet Goat while the Twin Towers burned. Bush strumming a guitar while hurricane victims drowned in their attics. Bush zooming downhill on his magic racer while the Middle East is ablaze. First Golfer Bush answering a question about terrorists with, "Now watch this drive." Bush vacationing in spite of the...al Qaida determined to strike the United States...PDB. What`s with this guy? Is he just so self-indulgent that he does what he wants, no matter what? Someone must have failed to rein him in during his formative years. Now, the Rubber Stamp Republicans took over where Bar left off.

Yesterday I saw a photo of Bush in his riding gear. Helmet, red socks, big wave for the cameras. So what if bombs are going off everywhere? The photo op easily could have been a twelve year old doing wheelies on a stolen bike. You know, lay back on your rear rim and rip up the neighbor`s lawn. The first thing I thought of was....Why, in the middle of this crisis would Bush even think about his bicycle? I know exercise is a good thing, but if my neighbor was just run over in the street, I don`t think I`d head out on a power walk or dive in for a few laps around the pool.

This guy is a total screw-up, a full-fledged national embarrassment.

[MisterP]

1. worse--like a spoiled sixty-year-old doing wheelies on a stolen bike

[uppityperson]

2. Many people want a King, someone to look to, a big daddy figure

Not someone with any real power, but someone to look up to. Reagan was a Kinghead, Mr.bush confuses me as to why people wanted him to be King. Telling about our societal values though. (meaning enough societal values in the USA to promote him to King, not necessarily your or my values, but general societal)

[catzies]

13. Not to threadjack, but IMO it's the authoritarian, "daddy knows best model

that works so well with Repugs.

It's what they call traditional values.

It really means "Daddy's in charge."

[Mabus]

16. Eisenhower-like

The "Daddy's in charge" phrase you used made me think of Eisenhower. When I was growing up I remembered my parents and grandparents criticizing Ike for not accomplishing much during his presidency. They talked about his playing golf a lot and not being very available to the press. I did a search and came across an article that reminds me of the conversations I heard as a child.

In the couple of decades following Dwight Eisenhower’s exit from the White House, historians reflected a general media view of Ike as a leader who brought calm—through his grandfatherly image, his love of golf, and his unwillingness/inability to answer directly questions from the press. With Sherman Adams as his in-control Chief-of-staff and Richard Nixon as his political attack dog, so the argument went, Eisenhower stayed above the fray of partisan and Cold War politics. Most biographers and historians praised Ike’s wartime record and barely recognized his 8 years as president.
***

Eisenhower and the Media

Eisenhower had an easier relationship with the media than did Richard Nixon, but that did not mean that the president liked the media or respected its members or that all in the press held him in high esteem. Eisenhower had cultivated the press during World War II; his winning personality helped. But he believed that the members of the press thought too much of themselves and their importance. We know now that he often confused the press corps with his answers (or non-answers) to their questions in order to ensure as much room for maneuver as possible. The classic case concerned Quemoy and Matsu:

Would the president use atomic bombs to defend the islands? (from attack by Chinese Communist troops)

Eisenhower: Every war is going to astonish you in the way it occurred, and in the way it is carried out. So that for a man to predict, particularly if he has the responsibility for making the decision, to predict what he is going to do it, would I think exhibit his ignorance of the war; that is what I believe.

http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/childs1/Eisenhower.htm

I think this is the image they are aiming for: Bush is a calming influence in dark times. He keeps his cool under duress. He's a downhome guy. If things were really as bad as the incompetent press would like you to think than Bush wouldn't be playing golf. And you gotta admit, Bush says the strangest stuff and his speeches are carefully parsed to give him a lot of leeway.

[catzies]

18. That's very interesting, thanks for posting that. Good stuff and

food for thought. :hi:

[Mabus]

20. but remember the important differences too

Eisenhower was an actual native son of Texas and grew up in the midwest. Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut and after his family moved to Texas he still spent a lot of time back east.

Eisenhower graduated from a public high school in Abilene, Kansas. Bush graduted from a Massachusetts prep school.

Eisenhower was an athlete whose career ended because of knee injury sustained tackling Jim Thorpe in a football game. Bush was a cheerleader whose career ended when he traded his pompons in for a vial of coke.

Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex and constant warfare. Bush doesn't want us to think about it, only go in debt for it.

Eisenhower served in the honorably in the military and used his past military experience to help plot the Invasion of Normady. Eisenhower also successfully commanded ally soldiers on several European fronts simultaneously. Bush claims to have served in the military. His lack of military experience, his lack of allies were/are impediments to his war in Iraq and he has shown that as Commander in Chief he can't fight a war on even one front.

Eisenhower turned down the "Medal of Honor" for his leadership in the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during WWII. Bush likes handing out shiny medals to his friends for their failures of leadership at crucial times.

Eisenhower was a war hero and a president. Bush wants to known as the war president.

:hi:

[snappyturtle]

3. The media should be showing that.....

photo before and after every commercial break....then, just maybe, people would WAKE UP!

[LSparkle]

4. You forgot the classic, "I thought you were going to ask me about the pig"

line with Angela Merkel.

I have NEVER been more embarrassed by our "leadership." As Randi Rhodes put it so well, at least Reagan knew how to ACT like a president ...

[democrank]

7. Thanks for the addition, LSparkle.

Bush`s pig remark is truly one of his worst.

Bush could be the guy who jumps in front of a tv camera, repeatedly bangs his own chest and bellows, "Over here, over here, look at me" while someone is filming a funeral procession.

[liberal N proud]

5. When the going gets rough the bu$h gets playing

Just doesn't have that ring to it. OH well, that is what happens every time there is a disaster he is out somewhere making sure he does not have to deal with the crisis. That is Dicks job.

[Virginia Dare]

6. Blair gamely tries to get him to focus on the ME crisis...

and he just sits there and butters his roll and stuffs his face like a dolt. He had nothing whatsoever of any substance to contribute to the G8 Conference, and he didn't even pretend to. The man DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE!

[peaches2003]

8. Where is the press?

If it wasn't for reading liberal blogs I wouldn't know a thing about any of this or have seen the photos of the bike, the beer, and the goofy loopy obviously half drunk sot.

[mtnsnake]

9. Great analysis!

Thanks, I enjoyed that!

:thumbsup:

[WildEyedLiberal]

10. Except when he tries to do a wheelie, he crashes his bike

Not only is he malicious and oblivious, he's incompetent.

[The Count]

12. And that's a crucial point!

He fell of that contraption made for feeble old people. And he failed at everything he tried - throughout his life. Spectacularly.

[bleever]

11. A full-fledged INTERNATIONAL embarrassment.

Which is what you meant, I know, but the way the Russians laughed at him, and the way he embarrassed all of us in front of the Germans, cries out for amplification.

[Patsy Stone]

17. I don't think

he should be touching anyone, anywhere. Just saying.

:hi:

[DeepModem Mom]

14. Where is that bike photo? I've been looking for it. Anybody got it? nt

[opihimoimoi]

15. Worse, the Pub Media and his Base of 60 to 75 million,still think POSITIVE

of him. Some think he is the BEST DARN PREZ WE EVER HAD....

Its amazing what a scam can do...Jim Jones did it to a 1,000 peeps....Bush has 70 MILLION EOPLE BY THE NUTZ....AMAZING.

[Lindacooks]

19. I've got 12-year-old nieces. Bush is more like a 3 year old.

eom