Mr. Bush’s Conversations with America 0

Aren’t. Conversations, that is.

My younger son loves to act. He has been acting since he was eight years old and he is very good. I have attended many plays.

One of the joys of live theatre is that actors do not stick to the script. They may stick to the ideas of the script, but they will vary their words and actions from performance to performance. Every show is slightly different.

Not so the Head of State of the United States of America.

But it takes talent to improvise and still make one’s points.

Listen to the scripting and prompting of Mr. Bush’s recent teleconference with American troops in Iraq here, with actual audio of the live feed. Hear the soldiers rehearsing their answers before the “conversation” starts, then hear them giving those answers when they were on the air.

And I know it’s a website with a point of view, but the transcript is still the transcript. See it here.

And, remember, my older son is in Iraq right now.

And this is what he is fighting for? The right for his fellow soldiers to be Lamb Chop to Mr. Bush’s Shari Lewis?

I’m sorry. These soldiers are no sock puppets, and Mr. Bush is no Shari Lewis. What an insult to their dedication and bravery. And to Shari Lewis. And to sock puppets.

It’s a damned shame we have a Federal Administration that fears allowing citizens to speak openly and honestly with the President of the United States.

And it’s even more of a shame that we have a President who allows his representatives to script his “conversations” with American citizens.

Or, even even more more distressing, who needs his representatives to script his “conversations.”