The President's Pampers

[womzilla]

From the Rude Pundit, a comparison between rock music and Rutherford Bush.

Neither one comes off looking good, I hasten to add.

You know what the worst kind of rock songs are? The kind where a pampered, rich rock star sings about how rough it is to be on the road every night, performing. Christ, you wanna say, nobody fucking forced you to play a guitar, fuck groupies, and get high every night. So when Bush kept falling back on how hard it is to be the man in the Oval Office, making decisions that affect Americans, all the Rude Pundit kept thinking was, ironically, the lyrics to Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive." Stop fucking whining. Shut the fuck up and do the job you campaigned for, destroyed others for, and finally stole.

Link to the Rude Pundit courtesy of supergee.

Comments

Time, Time, See What's Become of Me

[(Anonymous)]

I find it hard to defend George W. Bush on anything, but I will put in a good word for Bob Seger, if I may. "Turn the Page" comes from a time when Seger was a regional star ("I don't need any money, just my fame," as Otis Redding once sang) whose closest shot to a national breakout had ended when "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" fell off the charts. In addition, the song is an early example of the genre the Rude Pundit disdains and is of a piece with "Lookin' Back" (both songs I first heard on the LIVE BULLET album which preceded NIGHT MOVES), when some culture was still counter.

According to Paul Krugman, Bush need only maintain his optimism for nine more months. Giving him "Four More Yeara" makes me think of H.L. Mencken's support for Roosevelt in 1940, on the grounds that "he should bury his own dead horse." In kinder (and gentler, naturally) moments, I think of Robert Redford in "The Candidate," wondering what to do after he's compromised himself so much in order to win the Senate race.

Better that than Mr. Harding in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, who told McMurphy that he was so crazy that he voted for Eisenhower twice. Come to think of it, we had a President named Harding. He's traditionally ranked as a failure...

Rutherford Hayes, in contrast, comes off higher. I sometimes think this is because he's the only winner who lost the popular vote not to try for a second term. (Unlike John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Harrison.) There's a lesson in there somewhere, wouldn't you say?

Re: Time, Time, See What's Become of Me

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Eisenhower had his virtues. Like Sherman, he knew that war is Hell because he'd been there, and for the same reason he did not have to get us into Vietnam to demonstrate personal equipment size. And of course he was way to the left of Bush.