Monday, March 14, 2005
Should the President Attribute a Joke He's Stolen?
In The Washington Post today, Mark Leibovich talks about how President Bush is using humor on his desperate odyssey to find enough suckers P.T. Barnum talked about in order to convince Congress to pass his still-unknown Social Security reforms. The article, "Don't Stop Him Even If You've Heard This One," references a joke Bush makes about cattle guards wearing uniforms.
The really funny thing (because the joke isn't) is that in Robert Shogan's book "Constant Conflict: Politics, Culture, and the Struggle for America's Future," a variation of the cattle guard joke is attributed to Democrat Kent Hance, a Texas state senator and congressman and Bush's opponent in the 1978 19th district congressional race. According to Shogan, Hance painted Bush as a elitist Easterner who asks what color uniform the cattle guards will be wearing (p 232).
Now that joke may be as old as the ones about the priest, rabbi, and reverend entering the bar, or Bush figures that he can steal a joke from a former opponent because no one would think of checking it. Tsk, tsk, President Bush, that's what bloggers are for. At least the president could mention the circumstances during which he learned the cattle guard joke. Sadly, the only original joke the president seems to be telling is his plan to reform Social Security, a rather sick joke indeed.
The really funny thing (because the joke isn't) is that in Robert Shogan's book "Constant Conflict: Politics, Culture, and the Struggle for America's Future," a variation of the cattle guard joke is attributed to Democrat Kent Hance, a Texas state senator and congressman and Bush's opponent in the 1978 19th district congressional race. According to Shogan, Hance painted Bush as a elitist Easterner who asks what color uniform the cattle guards will be wearing (p 232).
Now that joke may be as old as the ones about the priest, rabbi, and reverend entering the bar, or Bush figures that he can steal a joke from a former opponent because no one would think of checking it. Tsk, tsk, President Bush, that's what bloggers are for. At least the president could mention the circumstances during which he learned the cattle guard joke. Sadly, the only original joke the president seems to be telling is his plan to reform Social Security, a rather sick joke indeed.
