Wednesday, January 03, 2007
George Bush: Not rumpled enough
Merrill Markoe, in today's featured post at The Huffington Post, confesses to Bush Derangement Syndrome of a sort I had not seen before:
There's a picture of George W. Bush talking to Donald Rumsfeld on the front page of the NY Times today. It infuriated me instantly, so I sat and tried to analyze my own rage.
Here's what I figured out: There is a reason why every picture of George W. Bush bears no physical resemblance to any other pictures you can find of burdened world leaders.
A casual perusal of photographs of other heads of state in times of crisis reveals men with lined faces who appear to have been sitting at long stressful meetings. Although all of our presidents, from FDR to Hoover to Kennedy to George HW Bush, have been expensively, and even nattily attired, their clothes still look worn. They look creased and disheveled from activity. Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy are two men who looked great in suits. But the suits looked like they had been attending meetings, and lunches and briefings. The suits looked like they had been part of a busy day.
That is not the case with this president.
An unwrinkled suit is her reason for rage?
It is rather astonishing that Markoe is not too embarrassed to write that, and that the HP's editors think their readers will find it so entertaining or interesting that they sent it around to their registered email publicity list.
12 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Wed Jan 03, 05:55:00 PM:
I don't like Bush's light blue ties. He should wear red ties. Red is a power color.
By ScurvyOaks, at
Wed Jan 03, 06:02:00 PM:
Best tie collection of a political figure: James Baker. A dedicated Hermes fan, with unerring taste. His ties are much better than the report.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Wed Jan 03, 06:26:00 PM:
Any stick is good enough to beat George Bush with. They hate him and have to find post hoc rationalizations for it. Seldom do they make that as obvious as here, though.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Wed Jan 03, 06:41:00 PM:
I forgot to mention: Sometimes Bush wears Oxxford suits. You can wear an Oxxford suit on a plane for 20 hours and still look crisp.
http://www.oxxfordclothes.com/
By Dawnfire82, at
Wed Jan 03, 07:12:00 PM:
Are you being paid to say that?
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Wed Jan 03, 07:29:00 PM:
Why do you ask, Dawnfire? Are you ready to spend somewhere between $3,000 and $14,000 on a suit?
The answer is no. I am a satisfied Oxxford customer.
By 
, at
Wed Jan 03, 09:02:00 PM:
I'm not surprised that HP's editors thought this was swell stuff.
By Georg Felis, at
Wed Jan 03, 09:10:00 PM:
Heck, I liked the Wildcat Purple tie he wore when he spoke at Kansas State University :)
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu Jan 04, 12:58:00 PM:
I was trying to be funny. Sheesh.
And no, there's no way I'll ever spend that much money on a suit, ever.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Thu Jan 04, 01:56:00 PM:
"And no, there's no way I'll ever spend that much money on a suit, ever."
When I was an up-and-coming young manager, I attended a meeting with a corporate CEO and a CFO to hear a proposal from a consultant. The consultant asked for a large amount of money for his services. The CEO agreed.
After the departure of the consultant, the CFO asked the CEO, "How do you know he is worth that much money?"
"By his shoes and the rest his clothes," the CEO said.
I learned the lesson. Since then, every dollar I have spent on expensive business clothes has generated many more dollars in additional income for me.
Business is theater.
By ScurvyOaks, at
Thu Jan 04, 06:12:00 PM:
"Business is theater." Yes, indeed. The only thing better than a good costume is good bullshit. Of course, you have to back up both of those with solid performance, but without the clothes and the bullshit, you're a lot less likely to have the opportunity to perform.
By Cardinalpark, at
Mon Jan 08, 11:26:00 AM:
Personally, I liked Saddam's attire. Especially his necktie.
