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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Would someone please teach this guy how to behave in public?
Posted by Jill | 6:59 AM
I'm embarrassed and ashamed that this guy is representing us to the world.

First we have the President of the United States talking while stuffing his face with bread -- while the Middle East burns.

Now we have him giving the Chancellor of Germany an impromptu neck massage -- uninvited -- while in a room full of people.

Perhaps this kind of towel-snapping frat-boy familiarity is regarded as endearing by the pencil-dicks who still support this president; perhaps they think it makes him a "regular guy." It's that kind of "You'd want to have a beer with him" meme that has allowed him to get away with destroying America's and the world's future for the last five-plus years. But as Evan Thomas and Richard Wolfe allude in Newsweek late last year, it's a defensive mechanism he uses -- a way to assert his power over a situation which he feels he does not control:

Often, Bush's joking is personal—it is aimed at you. The teasing can be flattering (the president gave me a nickname!), but it is intended, however so subtly, to put the listener on the defensive. It is a towel-snap that invites a retort. How many people dare to snap back at a president?


The problem is that what may seem endearing and "regular guy" to the beer-swilling morons of America is inappropriate in an international setting. All Americans should be ashamed that they have allowed THIS man to be their public face in the world. He represents everything that is ignorant, uncultured, crass, greedy, and arrogant about Americans.

(Hat tip: John)

UPDATE: Lindsay Beyerstein notes how this kind of ploy works:

Every woman will recognize the guy who sidles up and starts "casually" giving you a backrub without even looking at you, because he wants to preserve deniability in case you freak out. Like any practiced groper, Bush stares right past Merkel as she recoils from his touch.

The play fails, but he just moves on, eyes averted, like it's her problem. ("Oh my God, there's a hysterical woman displaying inappropriate behavior! I'll just pretend I don't notice her egregious gaffe.")


And Digby wonders:

Check out the look on his face. Does he look like he's "just having fun" or does he look like he's putting the uppity bitch in her place?

This woman is the Chancellor of Germany. What do you suppose you need to do to get treated with respect by this asshole?


And Chris Bowers points out how this is the way Bush asserts dominance in a room:

The episode reminds me of Lakoff's criticism of Bush's "permission slip" line in the 2004 state of the union address. Lakoff:
Should the United States have consulted the United Nations and gotton its permission to invate Iraq? An adult does not "ask for a permission slip"! The phrase itself, PERMISSION SLIP puts you back in grammar school or high school, where you need a permission slip from an adult to go to the bathroom. You do not need to ask for a permission slip if you are the teacher, if you are the principal, if you are the person in power, the moral authority. The others should be asking YOU for permission. That is what the permission slip phrase in the 2004 State of the Union address was about.

Again, Bush uses a subtle gesture to try and create a sense of dominance over other nations. In the same way that the "permission slip" line characterized the rest of the world as children who need permission from us, the adults, to do anything, this gesture by Bush positions Germany as the low level female employee who the boss can harass and still get away with it. Female executives are not treated this way anymore, much less female heads of state.


Those Bush apologists who think that these are just good old harmless "boys will be boys" hijinks might do well to remember that Bush's displays of assholery -- from the his obsession with pork the other day, to mugging with the screaming baby, to the smackdown Vladimir Putin gave him, all further erode this country's prestige in the world -- because enough people voted for this clown in 2004 to give him another term.

The entire Middle East is in flames, largely because of Bush's ill-begotten war, and he's treating this G8 meeting like a fraternity road trip. These displays are appalling, he is appalling, the media and Congress are appalling for continuing to prop him up, and we are appalling for not rioting in the streets to get rid of him.
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