I caught a few minutes of the three stooges tonight, Bush, Calderon and Harper being questioned at a press conference in Canada. None of them had anything meaningful to say...just posturing with meaningless platitudes.
Bush could hardly wait for his turn to be center stage and when it was his turn he was doing the most amazing Alfred E Newman kind of squinting and facial contortions along with a very smug look.
That scene rattled around in my brain for a while and I think I may have figured out why he was so smug.
First I have to say that the man seems very insecure to me...he seemed like he could barely stand it while Calderon was taking up so much time babbling.
But when Georgie boy got his turn he started in with his efforts of persuasion including all this strange bobbing and winking and then that smug look on his face. All the while an incredible load of bullshit was pouring out of his mouth about democracy for Afghans and Afghan women and children - hasn't anyone told him about the violence and destruction in his two war zones? - well it finally struck me that as he spewed the bullshit he became very pleased with himself for figuring out what it was that people wanted to hear and for giving it to them so flawlessly. The effort was so great to sound ingratiating that his forehead squeezed his eyebrows together in a strange way. But his beady little eyes looked blank.
He seemed to be quite pleased with himself. He really got going on how the three of them were there to represent all of us and do well by us. He threw around ideas like democracy and representation and public good but it was so ludicrous that I had the impression that Calderon was thinking "enough already no one believes you", but he never came out and said that so I can't be sure.
The three of them were pitiful. But I sensed that the other two glanced over at Bush thinking - hey man you're blowing our credibility here with your bullshit, 'cause they didn't lay it on as thick, although they seemed just as bankrupt of ideas as he was.
They all protested the critics who suggested that they were meeting in order to figure out how to screw people even worse than they already have.
So I think George was smug because he thought he had figured out what bullshit people wanted to hear and that he was gracefully snatching words out of the air right and left like any top power leader would be expected to do. And he seemed truly satisfied with his own performance. I think he tried to outdo the other guys to prove that he was the top dog. Meanwhile, the other two looked like they'd rather be anywhere but where they were. Harper looked uncomfortable speaking as he always does while Calderon babbled endlessly about nothing.
None of them were comfortable with the setting or the questions or it seemed with the role they were playing as the political heads of their governments. None of them expressed any joy or hope or pleasure.
And I kept thinking - who do these guys think they speak for and who do they answer to?
At least the Conservative Harper doesn't have a majority government and will likely face a vote of no confidence and an election if he gets out of line.