Thursday, October 18

Meltdown Accomplished


WATCHING a chunk of Wednesday's Ax da President I couldn't help but wonder if, all kidding aside, that guy from Austin disappeared because he realized he really was about to be outstripped by reality. Jesus, this is the country that was hooting at Crazy Mahmoud Ahmedinejad a couple of weeks ago. Like we should talk.

Twenty-four percent. How do you get an approval rating of twenty-four percent? Incest is at twenty-six. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is at eighteen.

I know, I know: you and I have sat through seven full years of this petulant boy and his smirking smugness, his ticcy compensations, the unfathomable depths of his shallowness. (How does the supposedly chastened White House gaggle continue to chuckle at the man's "witticisms"? Listening to it it occurred to me that things are so bad it would actually be reassuring to know they were afraid that giving him the reception he deserves might result in a bombing run somewhere. But we know better. Twenty-four percent, and this stuff still gets a hearing. If Bill Clinton had fallen that low you'd have seen little trash fires burning everywhere when they panned around the room.) I never expected it to get better. I did expect they'd be able to get him to pronounce "nuclear", and I thought I'd be inured to it by this time, especially since he managed to knock his dick in the dirt so unmistakably that even most Republicans have to ignore it rather than try to deny it. But no such luck. I still cringe every time he goes into his act.

I think the Putin thing clobbered 'em. (I typed "flummoxed" there first, but I believe that to be a perpetual state.) "If you plan on attacking Iran, you might want to come up with an alternative landing site to Azerbaijan." Brilliant, really. And an oddly comforting reminder of a simpler time, when nuclear brinkmanship was all we had to worry about.

4 comments:

FiniFinito said...

I watched the song and dance routine myself yesterday because first of all, I was thankful for the removal of Martha Stewart from my teevee because I have a wonky one eared rabbit ear setup so I only get CBS and NBC. Second, he displaced the Drew Carey hosted Price Is Right which I am still not sure I can get behind fully but I am trying to...I think Drew will blow a gasket on one of the lesser minds that comes on that show one day and so I think I will keep watching in anticipation of the day that the bespectacled, portly comedian-actor- turned-game-show-host finally loses it and goes off on one of the dottering old ladies who can't understand his clipped cadence when he speaks.

Anyway, back to the Preznit. I heard that crack he made when questioned about Putin's plan to remain in power next year by assuming the Prime Minister position. Our National Embarassment had another one of his Truth Telling Tourrette's moments when he quickly responded "I'm trying to do that too!" with the enthusiasm of the five year old that tells on himself to his mother just after nuking the family cat until it exploded. I swear to God, Bhudda, Ghandi, Allah and Jehovah that if he stays one second past 12 noon on January 20th, 2009 in the White House I will personally evict him at pitchfork-point.

Anonymous said...

I agree the Putin thing whacked the whacked, but don't underestimate how much the whacked's claim to continuing relevance in the face of 24% was pissy reaction to that Nobel winner. For five days Americans were saying to themselves afresh, shit.

yellojkt said...

I would trade Putin for Bush at this point.

Anonymous said...

You mean "nucular" brinksmanship, don't you?