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Presidential Fidgeting

By TChris, Section Other Politics
Posted on Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 08:37:25 AM EST
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by TChris

Dana Milbank observes that the president, particularly when confronted with uncomfortable questions (and what questions in his disastrous fifth year aren’t uncomfortable?), has been fidgeting like a grade school kid with a serious attention deficit problem.

[D]uring Bush's 14-minute pre-sunrise interview [with Matt Lauer] … [t]he president was a blur of blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man, but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady first lady, he had the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere.

The fidgeting clearly corresponded to the questioning. When Lauer asked if Bush, after a slow response to Katrina, was "trying to get a second chance to make a good first impression," Bush blinked 24 times in his answer. When asked why Gulf Coast residents would have to pay back funds but Iraqis would not, Bush blinked 23 times and hitched his trousers up by the belt.

When the questioning turned to Miers, Bush blinked 37 times in a single answer -- along with a lick of the lips, three weight shifts and some serious foot jiggling.

…

Lauer's query about whether conservatives "are feeling let down by you" appeared to provoke furious jiggling of the right leg.

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    • Presidential Fidgeting | 11 comments (11 topical)
    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:55 PM EST
    I seem to recall when this behavior was simply referred to as "tweaking"...at least among members of certain recreational chemical embrasive subcultures.

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#2)
    by Lis Riba on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:55 PM EST
    Lauer's query about whether conservatives "are feeling let down by you" appeared to provoke furious jiggling of the right leg.
    Maybe it was time for Bush to write Condi another note...

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#3)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:55 PM EST
    "...a question about Karl Rove prompted the president to start humming 'Oh, Susanna' and a question about the Fitzgerald investigation provoked the president to imitate John Cleese in the 'ministry of Funny Walks' sketch while belting out show tunes...."

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#4)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:55 PM EST
    Adept: this behavior was simply referred to as "tweaking"... Often a prelude to doing the full blown rubber chicken on the sidewalk, with the whole world watching...

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:55 PM EST
    What could all this blinking, pausing, shrugging and fidgeting possibly mean?

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:55 PM EST
    Gee, it's good to see that Dana Milbank is really digging for the important stories! : )

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#7)
    by Al on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:55 PM EST
    Meridym, a guy who can start a nuclear war going berserk in public is not an important story to you?

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:55 PM EST
    Hypothesis 1. He is acting like a child with ADD because he has ADD. Hypothesis 2. Symptoms of his renewed drinking and or coke use. Hypothesis 3. Lying. Hypothesis 4. Overactive bladder. Hypothesis 5. Malfunction in the brain chip that had been implanted by Rove.

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:56 PM EST
    Not a symptom of the booze or the coke -- Bush appears to be using METH. When he starts babbling about the worms living in his skin, time to haul him off to Bellevue, unless he already destroyed the earth in a hallucinating fit in which Jeesus kept screaming in his ear to "Just Do it!" Why can't they leave that poor dear alone? (MeridyM)

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:56 PM EST
    Hypothesis 2. Symptoms of his renewed drinking and or coke use.
    A couple of the more conspiratorial blogs that I occasionally visit are convinced he's been drinking again. But I think it's just the shock of the growing realization that he's not doing very well at his first real job.

    Re: Presidential Fidgeting (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:56 PM EST
    Wow, Allen, you think he's not doing very well? You must be on some other planet. Bush has been the MOST DESTRUCTIVE FORCE in American politics, in history. Since that was his goal, Mission Accomplished. You have to be a traitor, like Jim, jimcee, charley, BigMedia, and the others, to appreciate the fine points of destroying our nation so that his backers (and cronies) can become mega-billionaires. Apparently being billionaires wasn't enough.

    Presidential Fidgeting | 11 comments (11 topical)