bush Is Talking Right Now At Camp Pendleton

Easy now ladies.

McG, I'd be interested in those pictures of the other presidents -- and some links to where you found them. I really am curious about the practice of wearing military-ish clothes among presidents. I don't think I ever noticed it before this president so if it is a common practice, I'd like to know. Then I could stop being so creeped out.

Clinton looks pretty sill in his coat too...but something about the one bush was wearing the Star Trek style of it and that commander in Chief business... I found myself snorting and chuckling...."Look at me!! I'm a tough guy as long as your sons and daughters have my back"

emphasis mine

Just to remind everyone again, Clinton passed his economic recovery plan without a single Republican vote. Those Republicans deserve not whit of credit for the resulting economic expansion.

{Insert standard he-was-jist-lucky,,, president's don't control... replies}

As regards the President's latest appearance, I thought those troops who had to sit behind him so that the photo-op shot would show a man with his troops at his back must have really liked staring at that ass for forty minutes of blar-de-blarblar.

Joe (is he going to at least turn around and wave?) Nation

So there ya go, it doesn't seem to be too out of place except for those too out of touch.

Proof that everyone can look goofy in their own way.

As the originator of this thread I would just like to comment that if every sitting President since Washington looked like a dweeb in their C.O.C. jackets, that does not mean that bush doesn't look like one in his, which is what this thread was about.

If bush eats a bowl of ****, and clinton or carter ate two, it doesn't change the fact that bush ate a bowl. :wink:

Now can we stop fighting ands sniping? It really makes the new Sensitive Bi-Polar Bear very sad.

So, not to kick a dead horse, but that bomber jacket looks like standard presidential apparel as I have seen three presidents (in McG's pictures) wearing it. But what's up with Bush's custom made stuff?

I think he wears it simply to piss off liberals. :wink:

He wears his war-**** so often he needs a few alternates.

well I like pissing off conservatives occasionally,but I have to much sense and self esteem to do it by looking like an ass wipe.....of course I'm not the leader of the free world but wait a minute...neither is he...really

I would venture it is disingenuous to assume much, if anything, worn by any POTUS is "Off the Rack" particularly if it be worn in proximity to cameras. One of the perqs of the job.

That's fine, but seems to belie the "military wife gave it to him and he had to wear it or be rude" angle.

I am not so interested in his haberdasher as I am in his choreographer.

Brainfart. I have just hit the concept of 'why the hell did every damn President of the USA since WW2 manage to get into a shooting-war'?

For real. The USA has fought more wars since 'The Big One' than who? Do you mob just LIKE war or is it world domination stuf? Inquiring minds want to know.....

I think that is a question for a new thread.

And it's a damn fine question.

I'm kind of leaning toward the world domination theory.

Me too.

and here's the thread:

Cop or Bully?

Then maybe I should have said 'custom designed' stuff. I think my point was pretty obvious -- that previous presidents wore what looks like the same bomber style jacket but that this one looks like he's going for the uniform look, and it's clearly very different from the previous ones.

Hmmm - sounds like being a world leader means you sometimes have to wear really stupid stuff.

Our PM - being in the middle of the Pacific and Asia sometimes gets given feathery head-dresses and stuff - looks even dumber than Bush in his jacket.

Some of your other presidents seem to have been able to carry the look off a little better.

Mayvbe it was because Bush's was kind of all new and stiff looking?

This is a good point, one I also tried to make without success, and helps explain the indignation of our two conservative friends who took umbrage at my remarks by sniping at me personally, but who have literally hundreds of postings here ridiculing politicians they dislike, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton most prominently.

You can dish it out fellas, but you just can't take it, can you?

Let's go back to the pictures again:






The last of these is actually quite appropriate, taking into consideration not only what he is wearing but who is he is addressing -- the Special Olympics participants. Nor would I have any problem if Bush slipped on a New England Patriots or Detroit Pistons jersey during those championship teams' visits to the White House (which as fas as I can find in terms of photographic evidence he has not done). He'd still look a little goofy, but he would get even from me the latitude of getting caught up in enjoying himself as a sports fan.

But when you are a President who has sent the nation to war on dubious intelligence, fabricated evidence, and outright lies, then your leeway in playing soldier is, to put it mildly, significantly reduced.

It's instructive at this point to go back and look at the photos that McGentrix linked in of the various Presidents (I won't link back to it; it's just a few clicks back and you can find it easily yourself).

He supplied this as evidence to refute my point that, as a rule, Presidents just don't do this.

He's still wrong.

Now I'm already on record as criticizing the picture of Clinton for his outfit at the ship dedication, so my partisanship (or lack thereof) shouldn't be an issue.

And for those who may not have looked at McG's pictures, there's Reagan, Carter and Bush the Elder walking or standing at leisure wearing bomber jackets, and a picture of John Kennedy on an aircraft carrier (or some other naval vessel).

First, there's the important distinction that all these Presidents served their nation with honor during a time of war. Kennedy and Bush the Elder won medals for valor; Ronald Reagan, due to difficulties with his eyesight served the Enlisted Reserves in a variety of posts stateside. And to be fair "time of war" is a bit of a stretch for Carter; his Naval Academy appointment put him in the Pacific in 1947, and while he served on several vessels including being part of Adm. Hyman Rickover's pioneering pioneering program of nuclear-powered submarines, by the time he was discharged in 1953 the weapons firing he had been exposed to had been only as a component of simulated war patrol.

Further, there was never any question surrounding their service to their country, and none of them dressed themselves in a flight suit and landed on an aircraft carrier either.

Bush comes in for deserved criticism, no matter how much McG or cjhsa dislike it -- or me for that matter -- because of these demonstrated attempts to have the glory of honorable service transferred to him by osmosis.

He didn't earn it when he had the chance, and now he wants it applied to him by fiat.

As I said before: unh-uh.

This is actually the type of person he gets compared to when he puts on these khaki pretend uniforms:



Or this:



Or, sadly but deservedly, this: