G.I. George, action president! (Salon)

[onehandle]

The forthcoming President Bush aviator doll is a satirist's dream. But are Americans still too frightened to laugh at their leader?

Sept. 12, 2003 | First, President Bush billed taxpayers for a campaign photo-op of himself swaggering across the deck of an aircraft carrier as if he were Will Smith after vanquishing the alien foe in "Independence Day." Now, history repeats itself as farce squared -- coming Sept. 15, a tiny Bush action figure dressed in a naval flight uniform to commemorate the original pseudo-event.

Little Bush is being billed as an "authentic" military figure in Blue Box toy company's line of "Elite Force aviators." What's next? An "authentic" plastic uranium report from Niger?

The figure invites parody, but it also raises concern heading into the 2004 elections: With machine guns and gnawing anxieties still greeting travelers as they get on planes; with blackouts triggering flashbacks; with a president inviting a new jihad against U.S. soldiers as the war drags on in Iraq, free-floating fear persists, and we may still be too terrified to laugh.

Professor Mark Crispin Miller, author of "The Bush Dyslexicon," thinks the shock of 9/11 altered the humor threshold in American culture, though temporarily. "Bush's sudden stature was based entirely on mass terror," Miller said. "Considering what had gone down, people were reluctant, understandably, even to question his policies, much less laugh at him."

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Mark Katz, who wrote jokes for Dukakis during the 1988 campaign and went on to work for both Bill Clinton and Al Gore, raises the relevant historical question: "Has any other president dressed up in a military uniform? I mean, while they were in office? I think this may be the first time ever."

The answer, apparently, is no. According to Miller, "None of the ex-generals who've served as U.S. president would ever have donned war gear while holding that civilian office. Bush -- who never served -- did so." During Vietnam, Bush did manage to secure a coveted place in the Texas National Guard. Critics claim that even there young Bush neglected his responsibilities the year before he started at Harvard Business School in 1973.

snip...

As Miller sees it, Bush's declining numbers in the polls tells the underlying story -- our willingness to laugh follows our growing willingness to be critical. "What with the faltering economy and the daily news of more dead U.S. soldiers," Miller said, "even his erstwhile supporters are beginning to admit that they don't want to see him reelected."

As November 2004 draws closer, more uncompromising criticism becomes possible, and with it, less compromised hilarity. And perhaps when Americans have the opportunity to hold the little Bush action figure in their hands during an election year the experience will trigger some serious giggling -- just the sort of prop comedians have been searching for to help this country fully recover its sense of humor.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/09/12/g_i_george/index.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. The man is dispicable and an embarrassment to all Americans

Arrogance results in very little friendship/cooporation from other nations.

Our America is now judged to be very arrogant. This arrogance invites Hate, Envy, and a license to do bad things to us by our enemies.

Arrogance and greed is a bad combo/

G I George is a cruel joke on all pilots, and their families, present and past.