President Bush's Frat Boy Attitiude
Last week's White House press conference was notable for a number of reasons. First, any time President Bush answers questions from the press is a noteworthy event, given that he has deigned to do so fewer times than almost any other modern President. It was also notable because mere hours earlier, North Korea claimed to have tested a nuclear weapon underground.
The press conference was also noteworthy because of what happened after the President left the podium. Just after he wrapped things up in the Rose Garden, top Pentagon officials held a press conference of their own to announce a new plan to maintain US Army strength in Iraq at current levels, roughly 140,000 Soldiers, through 2010. This was startling news, if only because it stands in such stark contrast to the initial war plans (or lack thereof), which called for reducing troop strength in Iraq to 30,000 by the end of 2003.
It's baffling that the President did not find this decision important enough to mention himself. Maybe he hoped the press corps would be too preoccupied filing their stories to notice the Army's announcement. Or maybe the Pentagon is ready to admit just how bad things have gotten in Iraq, but the President is not. Has it really come to this?
But there's one more reason yesterday's White House press conference was notable. In between questions on such topics as nuclear proliferation, an alleged child predator in Congress, and the death of untold thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq, our President found time to make wisecracks about the wardrobe of the White House press corps. And the press corps, for their part, indulged him. It's all right there, in the official press conference transcript.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President --
THE PRESIDENT: If I might say, that is a beautiful suit.
Q: Thank you, sir. My tailor appreciates that.
THE PRESIDENT: And I can't see anybody else that even comes close. (Laughter.)
Q: Thank you very much. I'll be happy to pass along my tailor's number if you'd like that, sir.
It went on like that for a while. It was pathetic. And I was not amused.
The next day, I read about how many US troops were killed and wounded in Iraq. I wonder if any of them died, or lost a limb, or were blinded at the same time our President was cracking jokes on national television.
His attitude at the press conference reminded me of his little performance back in 2004 at the White House Correspondents Dinner, when he cracked jokes about not being able to find WMD in Iraq. Here is the video if you missed it. That wasn't funny either. Remember that?
As a veteran of this war in Iraq, I am sickened by the consistently flip nature of the President in the face of deadly serious issues. His ridiculous banter reflects poorly upon all Americans.
If I want comedy, I don't look to our President. I'd rather get it from someone like John Stewart. Stewart doesn't have to concern himself with acting as the Commander and Chief--and he is actually good at being funny. He even did a brilliant piece on the press conference. Watch it here.
Asked about the President's jokes at the press conference last week, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said, "Although he's president and that's a serious job, he does like to reach out to others in friendly ways."
And the press, once again, indulged him.
"I've been covering him since 1993," said Ken Herman, a Cox Newspapers reporter who was teased by Bush about his seersucker suit yesterday. "That's the way he likes to make connections. He still has some frat boy in him."
Thanks Ken, but with nukes in North Korea, perverts in Congress and 140,000 of my brothers and sisters in uniform bound to serve another four years in Iraq, I'd rather have a statesman than a frat boy.
It's all just a comma to Bush. The guy really doesn't care. He thinks he is spreading 'God's gifts'. E. L. Doctorow said it well: link
He wanted to go to war and he did. He had not the mind to perceive the costs of war...You become a wartime leader. The country gets behind you. Dissent becomes inappropriate. And so he does not drop to his knees, he is not contrite, he does not sit in the church with the grieving parents and wives and children. He is the president who does not feel.
October 17, 2006 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh c'mon, Paul, this is more than a little silly, isn't it? I yield to no one in my loathing of Bush, but do you mean because there's a war on, he's not allowed to be anything other than grimly serious, 24/7? And that anything else is an affront to the soldiers fighting in Iraq? The "Searching for WMD" skit was one thing -- that was joking about a very serious and deadly issue. Wholly inappropriate. But his banter with the press... I mean, it's a little pathetic the frat-boy level he does it on. He's certainly no JFK in that respect. But it's hardly the worst crime.
October 18, 2006 6:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with Paul. If Bush held a lot of Press Conferences, then he might have some leeway to waste time trying to look superior by cracking jokes. But since he gives Press Conferences only when forced to because things are getting so bad, then his time-wasting is an insult to all Americans.
Not his worst crime? Assuming he has delegated all his mistakes to Dick Cheney, then that may be a true statement. But the fact is that his lame attempts at humor are little more than an effort to avoid accepting responsibility for the true disasters of his government which in fact DO belong to him.
October 18, 2006 6:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
No. He should not be doing this because he is not funny. My point here being that to be funny he would have to be able to say he was wrong. The comparison with Stewart is apt. If you watch him, he pokes fun at a lot of idiocy; but he also makes himself the target. This is what make a gifted satirist. Bush can't conceivably be funny and he should know it is like fingernails on the blackboard to listen to that "light banter"
dc
October 18, 2006 7:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
The problem is not what he’s saying; it’s what he is conspicuously quiet about. The WH has spun the reality in Iraq for three years (more if you count the run-up to war). The point is that Bush jokes and spouts empty platitudes. Then he is followed by a group of generals almost whispering out of the sides of their mouths, “Despite the rosy scenario we always paint of our doomed-to-fail-mission in Iraq, we will have to keep your sons and daughters in that chaotic hell, many more to die and be maimed (along with the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dying) for at least another four years…” The jokes are a distraction- a feint.
October 18, 2006 9:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
To me it isn't just this attitude at press conferences that bothers me. It is his pattern, over the years, to be very flippant when discussing serious issues. I don't know if he just has a level of discomfort in public when having these discussions, but we have seen it over and over for the last 6 years. He seems to truly be a paradoxical person at times. Seemingly, according to some, empathetic when meeting one on one with loved ones of Iraqi war casualties, yet not recognizing the insensitivity of his frat boy posturing as during the press conference or the astoundingly idiotic WMD skit.
I'm certainly no psychiatrist. I'll leave that to those schooled in that science. But as a midwestern baby boomer raised in a classic American community and brought up being taught mainstream "American values", he comes across as an emotionally stunted and immature kid. Petulant and spoiled. Someone who never quite got the grasp, through regular exposure, to the normal human sensitivities and empathetic emotions which are developed when brought up in a well adjusted home.
To me this has been evident from the very earliest days he appeared on the national scene. Why it is just now becoming apparent to most Americans is quite surprising. To me, he has always come across as the whiny, spoiled kid in the neighborhood who everyone reluctantly included because he was the only one who owned the authentic NFL football. And without including him there would be no backyard football games.
October 18, 2006 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rush spins the recent high number of dead US troops as the terrorists trying to support the Democrats in November. In other words, it's the Democrats fault so many Americans have been killed in Iraq. It's not Bush's fault. Not the fault of his cheerleading know-nothings either, like Rush.
Kill troops and the US will 'cut and run' under Democrats, who according to Rush, could never win a war, ever. He related in the same transcript that if Americans knew history they would know this point on Democrats inability to fight wars was true. (...Who won WWII ??) Republicans and Rush count on the 'base' being as dumb as dirt. We'll see just how dumb in a few weeks.
October 18, 2006 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rove has been playing that same gambit since ’03. Still, I have to say that the hubris of the right never ceases to amaze me and Rush is one of the biggest hypocrites. Glen Greenwald had a piece this morning that exposed the utter pretense of the right wing “pundits.” I think they are really running scared right now. I see these scathing criticisms of the Republicans in congress and the WH suddenly appearing. Then I read these murmerings of a new bipartisanship that would be good for the country. If and when they take control from these usurpers, I hope the Democrats finally get some cajónes and use their subpoena power to expose and prosecute these guys for what they are and have been doing to this country the last six years.
October 18, 2006 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink