A favorite pastime among Bush revisionists and obsessive Obama haters has been the endlesslyrecalleddeparture of  the Churchill bust Bush displayed in the Oval Office in a transparent plea to be compared with the former great.
Imperial WorkroomÂ
Barack Obama came to town and Winnie went, to the shocked disbelief of imperial nostalgists everywhere. Glenn Beck brought Churchill back for stirring addresses emanating from his make believe White House. Â Â The Washington Post faithfully transcribed House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s alternative Churchill history, in which the Tories somehow were not in power as Hitler prepared his move.
Now, in a shocking development, George W. Bush himself has literally hidden Churchill!  Bush’s new White House portrait [not to be confused with his Portrait Gallery portrait] has been unveiled, and the former President is shown blocking America’s view of the craggy visage we  crave.
Saved for public viewing is the image over Bush’s right shoulder, the cowboy painting he has gone to extraordinary lengths to mislabel and misrepresent in order to dress up his lame “A Charge To Keep” theme.
He has a history of borrowed gravitas attempts in the past, including his MLK Makeover at the Lincoln Memorial, and a previous Oval-ation when he was still on cable.
Glenn’s fantasy White House is sort of a mash-up, with blue screens to add “punch” to his bold observations. When words fail to portray the hell-scape President Obama is leading us to, the pictures can take over.Â
Beck’s pretend POTUS platform is a return to yesteryear in many ways, with the Bush era Churchill bust returned to its place of glory,   and the God-awful Bush Presidential Seal rug back in action.  Glenn apparently missed the Obama rug swap, with the attending “controversy.”
The Kennedy Library used to [and may still] have a display of Jack’s Greatest Hits from press conferences of yore.It was amazing.  Even allowing for who chose the footage, the fawning questions setting JFK up to knock it out of the park every time were breathtaking.  But it wasn’t heard to convey energy and what passed for wit after the torpid Eisenhower years with Mom & Dad.   I think we’ll be spared the excitement of future Woodstock anniversary commemoration, but someone thinks there’s still juice to be extracted from round numbered Kennedy dates.HBO’s “A President To Remember” nominally marks the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s inaugural.  Creator Robert Drew has great black and white footage of men in suits looking decisive, beyond that I’m guessing.The publicity materials are sparse, but the film seems blissfully unaware of the vast efforts by actual historians and journalists to take Smiling Jack down a peg. It’s still selling the original Kennedy premise of energy, drive and vague goals.Drew laments“We’ve had generations that have never known a active lively president who was well-regarded” What’s presented is Kennedy at his empty-suitest.  The publicity clip opens with JFK sound over video that sounds spliced together from a  couple of sources, and amounts to emphatically stated blather of the highest order:“I run for the presidency because i have strong ideas about what this country must do. That’s what i think this election is about, that’s what we’re going to begin to do next Tuesday”
Hopes for a dynasty-free nation soared with the sputtering end of George W. Bush’s administration and the announced retirement of the Kennedy’s last office holder.
Over The Shoulder, Out Of Reach
But new threats emerge.
Jimmy Carter’s Grandson has been elected to the Georgia State Senate, and Richard Nixon’s Grandson aspires to do in a Long Island Democratic Congressman if the Republican nomination can be secured.
The drums have grown silent on George P. “little brown one” Bush’s inevitable rise to greatness, but all this can’t but help build the tired stench.
“It should be noted that this comic is neither a piece of Reagan sycophancy, nor is it political satire” –Talking Points Memo
What’s with these guys? First the vaguely progressive Huffington Post faithfully reprints Associated Press’s recycling the disproved George W. Bush Jacket ‘n Tie fetish myth.
Now Talking Points Memo, with a staff that actually writes stuff, endorses a Ronald Reagan comic that’s kind of a mess.
TPM may not find the work sycophantic, but it’s certainly the product of a sycophant.
Comic author Don Smith doesn’t fake the fawning. Did you know that, unlike some, Ronald Reagan “really loved this country.”