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10.3.04 Kerry & the Chimp
I was heartened that Kerry performed so well on the debate, but I
know that doesn't matter to those who can't get enough of Bush repeating
his invented truths. (Newseek
poll shows Bush lead has vanished -- yesss!!!)
My only quibble is that Kerry should have hammered on the word
INCOMPETENCE. The business literature says there are lots of good
strategies out there, but 90% of them fail in the execution. Bush & Co.
have not only had a slapdash strategy, they were totally incompetent in
its execution. On some superficial level, Kerry's Iraq plan may sound
like Bush's but he offers hope for the end of INCOMPETENCE.
On Bush's face: Check on the
Democratic National Committee
site for a video of his grimaces.
One of my new favorites in the blogosphere is
James Wolcott --
a nasty, independent wit who writes for Vanity Fair. On the
debate:
Bush's face suffered a silent outbreak of Tourette's Syndrome; he
grimaced, smirked, sniffed, rolled his eyes, and did some weird
thing with his mouth that as yet has no diagnostic name. He was
President Twitchy, giving a performance that critics hailed as
"peevish" and "petulant."
We've seen President Twitchy before. When Helen Thomas persisted in
asking Bush why he was trying to tear down the walls between church
and state, and wouldn't be sluffed off with one of his standard
nonanswers, Bush, as I wrote in Attack Poodles, went
through a battery of irked expressions that ended with him imitating
Tony Perkins in the final shot of Psycho, looking as if he
had a fly on his nose.
Since then Bush has been wheeled out into forums where no one can
dare question or contradict his majesty, where he can lean forward
and repeat ad nauseam his patented soundbites. Last night I
believe we saw the ugly comeback of the private face of Bush--the
irritable expressions he flashes subordinates when he's presented
with information he doesn't like or feels someone's taken up too
much of his time or is pressed to explain himself to people he
shouldn't have to explain himself to because he's the president and
fuck you. The notion that Bush is "likeable" has always been
laughable. It takes a Washington pundit to be that dumb. He's an
angry, spoiled, resentful little big man--I use "little big man" in
the Reichian sense of a small personality who puffs himself up to
look big through bluster and swagger but remains a scheming coward
inside--and next to a genuinely big man like Kerry, shrunk before
the camera's eyes.
Philip Gourevitch
in The New Yorker had this to say about Bush in general:
He has a repertoire of stock poses and expressions, as does any
professional performer, but the freedom of his movements is
striking. Flip through snapshots of him, and you’ll find any number
that catch him in a bizarre or comical position. The mobility of his
face leaves him open to lampooning, not least because of its simian
modelling, which is underscored by his affectation of an equally
simian gait—the dangle-armed swagger, like a knuckle-walker startled
to find himself suddenly upright. But even when he looks foolish, or
simply coarse, Bush is never less than an expressive presence.
In other words, he looks -- not like a cowboy -- but like a
chimpanzee. "Like a knuckle-walker startled to find himself suddenly
upright" -- I love that. |
mad
in pursuit: greed & arrogance