Iraq Is Not Hilarious, Mr. President

[kentuck]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/iraq-is-not-hilarious-mr_b_38726.html

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That said, there's one aspect to President Bush's public speaking style that's forcing me to rethink my interest in watching. For a while this one particular idiosyncrasy was fascinating to observe, however outrageous. Now it just makes me want to get up from the TV or computer and just run away really fast. One of those cinematic angry sprinting runs -- the head thrown back, teeth gnashed, fists pumping -- the kind that always ends with a drunken bloody fracas at a pub for some reason. I really can't cope with it anymore because it's just so damn wrong. We've all noticed this particular affectation over the years and many of us have written about it on the blogs: The president tends to grin and laugh when discussing deadly serious topics.

The most recent occurrences of the president's giggle-fits happen to have been documented during his 60 Minutes interview Sunday night (video via C&L). The smirking and smiling and laughing was so rampant that I almost completely overlooked not only the substance of his criminally misguided bullshit, but I also nearly missed Scott Pelley's repeated use of the pejorative "Democrat" form when discussing Democratic legislation and Democratic opposition to the war.

<snip>
This expression better matches a statement like, "I once swallowed a coin then pooped it out." Instead, the very same man who ordered Americans into Iraq in the first place is now grinning when discussing one of the ways in which they've been killed.

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But worse, he can't even fake the dignity and tact required to discuss Iraq without the cockeyed smirk of a stoned teenager who's being grilled by his parents after coming home late; the laughter seeming to bubble and tickle just below the surface of a thinly aloof facade. Maybe it's embarrassment. Maybe it's poorly-executed stage direction from his media consultants, i.e. "be more casual than last week's speech, sir." Or maybe he thinks it's all just a game. Maybe the unspoken financial goals of those who are profiting from the war have been achieved. Maybe his own hinted political goals have been achieved (re-election, for example). So other than some occasional ugliness, his mission really has been accomplished, and thus, good times.

[cdnwannabe]

1. I honestly don't see how anyone can watch him at all...

he's sub-human, IMO

[peacetalksforall]

2. Our expectations are too high. If we expect a soul and there is

none, then programmed responses get out of sync. If we communicate through our words, body, and tone of voice - and if the body sends the strongest message, and if coordination is premised on having a soul, a conscience, and words that are true - then he is explainable. Way, way out of sync. He may have always been out of sync. And perhaps, no one is going to be able to get him in sync.

And no one in the press or his Party admits it. Most of us saw it for the first time on the big screen when he commented on his non-pardon of Karla Fay Tucker. Waaaay out of sync words, body, tone. Now we've moved from commentary on one person to thousands.

His handlers are mostly to blame. I believe they lie to him and let him live a lie about his role as President - part of his problem is total confusion.

[valerief]

3. I think he's a bionic preznit designed to dumb down the nation. nt