This comes from January 25th, 2007. Now here we are in the “end times,” the last few weeks of the double-whammy Bush regime, and I realize — I still haven’t got used to the idea that they’d put this guy in charge of a WalMart, much less a whole country.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.”
And he walks out, and all that goes through my head is – you’ve got to be kidding.
I’ve really tried to warm to George. He’s supposedly a very likable guy. I’m sure I would have fun with him at a barbecue, if I could get over the fact I’m almost certain he would mostly ignore me.
He’d want to talk baseball, one of his favourite subjects. I think he’d assume I knew nothing about sports, so would tacitly exclude me.
Or maybe when I spoke up, if I found something to say that caught his attention, he would do what some guys have done before if I surprise them, cock his head and suddenly give me a disproportionate amount of attention.
Maybe he’d even call attention to me, around the grill, handing me a beer.
“Here you go, Jenny, I guess you’re drinking with the boys!”
I might even be charmed by it.
That’s how I see George W. Bush’s likability working, on a very down-home, casual conversational level. He’s the kind of guy you want to hang out with, to tailgate with. The kind of guy you want running your son’s little league.
I don’t quite get why anyone would want him for President. How far can likable get you in the tangled world of politics, semantics, religion… How far is it supposed to get you, in other words, when you can’t just invite everyone out to a barbecue to charm them with brewskies and good old-fashioned common sense?
My partner has a theory, and I’d probably put money on it. I wonder if Vegas already has odds.
Matt met Bush once a long time ago, at a ball game, when he was just a good old boy who happened to be wealthy enough to have his own team. He knew every stat; he understood every nuance of the game.
I’ve seen nothing like that kind of attention paid to his current job, nothing like that paid to the intricacies of domestic policy, or the minefield of world affairs.
So yes, I’d put money on it.
Just like people often take jobs they don’t really want as a stepping stone to their true ambitions, so I believe Matt when he says he thinks it’s true of Bush:
He’s only President so that someday, he might get to be Commissioner of Baseball.
Comforting thought.
Footnote:
Forgive me, but I can never tell during his speeches if Bush is saying “tourists” or “terrorists.” And they say we Canadians talk funny.
heather said,
October 12, 2008 at 5:20 am
our backup plan, this election if McCain wins, is to gather up the family and run (drive) like the wind up to Canada. Thank goodness I still have my citizenship and a canadian passport.
If he has been saying “tourists” all along then someone in his inner circle has really been messing up big time.
Dan McIntyre said,
December 15, 2008 at 1:06 am
If George Bush was asked to explain a “no fly” zone, he would describe the infield fly rule to a T.
The only other people I know who can explain the infield fly rule are me and Jen.