December 5, 2003

REVELATION?:

Stuffed by a plastic turkey: Bush's gesture politics suggest a man seriously worried about his career (Mark Lawson, December 6, 2003, The Guardian)

If anyone makes a similar film about the attack on Iraq, the title would now have to be The Plastic Turkey. In a revelation certain to be taught at schools of democracy and journalism for years to come, it has been revealed that the apparently appetising turkey that President Bush carried towards beaming troops last week in Baghdad had been genetically modified to a degree that would lead even the most profit-hungry farmers to protest. The bird was the kind of model used by butchers and Hollywood set-dressers.

Following this disclosure, the president is, unlike his political prop, stuffed: with a gap in the storyboards for his re-election commercials. A picture intended to say to viewers "The Eagle Has Landed", in fact spelled out: "This Bird Never Flew."

The fakery went further. The hoax roast in the president's hands cannot even be claimed as a symbolic stand-in for the steaming birds that were actually served. Reports say that the US troops were given airline-style meals of pre-packaged meat. And the pretend chef had flown to Baghdad in an Air Force One that filed a fake flight-plan, pretending to be a small corporate jet.

The latter act - though embarrassing for a politician who promised to end the easy lying of the Clinton years - can probably just about be excused as security. But the affair of the plastic turkey can only be attributed to insecurity.

Although the image of George Bush, until recently, was of a man who could do whatever he wanted in both America and the world, recent events have suggested a man seriously worried about both his image and his career. The president seems to have entered a phase of gesture politics, and the gestures are those of a man who, while still swimming vigorously, has suddenly come to accept the possibility of drowning.


It's just not possible to demonstrate less comprehension of the political situation in America than does Mr. Lawson. The President he thinks worried about drowning is instead deciding what his agenda should be in the 2nd term, so he can run on it and have a mandate to pass it.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 5, 2003 10:47 PM
Comments

This probably indicates that Bush is in deep trouble among the faculty of college English departments nationwide. Good thing for us that deconstructionists are under-represented in the voting population.

Posted by: Dave in LA at December 6, 2003 12:15 AM

He served them turkey. Pictures were taken of him serving turkey. Someone also took a picture of him holding the plastic centerpiece. He didn't serve them the plastic centerpiece.

So?

Are these people really that dumb?

Posted by: John Thacker at December 6, 2003 1:35 AM

Ah, John, you are so pathetically naive. You, as a shallow, materialist American, see only a plastic turkey, whereas profound European leftists understand how the mendacity of the empire is being revealed to all in its fragility, hollowness and rank, anti-human evil. This is the beginning of the end...again.

Posted by: Peter B at December 6, 2003 6:01 AM

What the liberals don't seem to understand is the effect this short visit had on the men and women that are serving in Iraq. Among the military personnel present there was a sense that an honor was being bestowed upon them by their CinC.

I can't see Clinton making a gesture like this...

Posted by: TL Wilson at December 6, 2003 7:31 AM

Come now OJ....

It's not a matter of comprehension. The Guardian is a stalwart bulwark of the Left. Reality is a CONSTRUCT, remember? Facts are mere creations of the oppressor.

They need for GWB to be "seriously worried about his career", ergo he IS. Da da!

It's easy... and fun!

(And how many of us right now are just dying....DYING to read these Euro papers on the day after the election. Oh, it'll be rich!)

Posted by: Andrew X at December 6, 2003 9:41 AM

I'm such a loser for rising to this bait, but as far as I can tell from tracking this down, the turkey he held up was a real turkey that was really roasted, but prepped to be a show piece. This is standard military Thanksgiving mess protocol and had nothing to do with the President's visit.

Posted by: David Cohen at December 6, 2003 9:47 AM

Now find the gunman on the grassy knoll...

Posted by: oj at December 6, 2003 10:01 AM

Andrew:

Recall how perplexed they were after the 2002 midterm, when they expected him to be repudiated?

Posted by: oj at December 6, 2003 10:10 AM

One day, perhaps in December 2008, GWB can put on the same jacket, take a tray similary adorned (except for a large black bird in the middle), and take it out to serve to the assembled press corps.

Posted by: jim hamlen at December 6, 2003 11:24 AM

Tee hee. I bet that skit isn't presented at the National Press Club show.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 6, 2003 3:51 PM
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