January 23, 2002

9:34 AM

Hold on, Mr. President - you forgot your makeup!NBC is showing this special tonight about the "real" West Wing, but of course the President's handlers have manipulated the day so it looks good on tv. But it's not just Bush - theatrics in the same vein of "Look, he's being presidential" have been going on a long time in Washington. Is it good, bad, or just the nature of the beast? Who's your favorite "The Real World: Pennsylvania Ave." cast member?
posted by owillis (4 comments total)

one word: enrongate

Seriously, Condoleeza is HOT

No, for real: without blinking: Marlee Matlin or Mary Matalin which one actually works in the West Wing?
posted by victors at 10:46 AM on January 23, 2002

Got a snicker out of 43's line to Brokaw about "firing up" a pretzel. I've never heard of a pretzel being "fired up". I have, however, "fired up" other less wholesome treats.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:29 AM on January 24, 2002

I found nothing objectionable about this special. It was no more artificial than previous such media events such as Jackie O's televised White House tour, and I think it's healthy to have the kind of government with this kind of openness. Sure, it's likely that few of the meetings were as substantive as they may have otherwise been, but then maybe you haven't been in many meetings -- the real decisions are rarely made at them! As for Adamkus changing his schedule, which has been a point of derision for some, people forget that he has/had dual US citizenship, and was a long-time federal official working for the EPA in Chicago, while simultaneously acting as Lithuania's consul general and active in local Republican politics. I'm not at all surprised that he was easily persuaded to change his schedule. (Though I'm sure he's busy enough, one must admit that Lithuania's diplomatic constraints are fewer than ours.)

There were some subtly pointed barbs as Bush talked about the "dignity" of the Oval Office (he's certainly entitled), where he won't permit casual dress. I've actually been impressed with the variety of locations that Bush has held interviews; one of the September ones upstairs, and now last night's, were in rooms rarely seen. That's a very nice touch. Hmm. Still disappointed there's no good floor plan of the entire White House online. I've seen tremendously detailed ones in more than one book.

I have to say that even if you admire Bush (as I do), the way he does that 4th-grader class-cut-up smirk "Hey! I made a joke!" after his pretzel story is really, really annoying. There has been a bit of trying-too-hard about the effort to down-spin the whole choking episode.
posted by dhartung at 9:19 AM on January 24, 2002

my favorite moment was when Bush claimed he wasn't a "linguist" after Brokaw ribbed him about how he sometimes wanders off into the language wilderness when speaking without a script.
posted by mariko at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2002