The Other Bush

[annuin]

Did anybody happen to see Laura Bush's speech at the Washington Correspondent's gala dinner a couple of nights ago (I believe Friday)?

I'll state that I've never really warmed to her at all, and there's no real reason for it (other than her choice in spouse I guess), and Kit often points out that she reminds him of a Stepford wife, which is true also, but that speech definitely put her in a much better light for me.

Usually at those dinners (held annually since 1914) only the President makes a speech, and aparantly Shrub was making a speech. However, just as PreZ and I flipped past CNN Dubya had been interrupted by his wife, who took his place at the podium, got him to sit back down at his seat, and took to the microphone herself. Apparantly not something that's ever happened before, because the talking heads on CNN and Fox were all kind of going "well, this is certainly something we've never seen before".

While I'm sure she had scriptwriters helping her out with that speech, she could almost consider a sideline in stand-up, because she spent most of her speech poking fun at Bush himself, the Bush clan (comparing mother-in-law Barbara to Don Corleone), Cheney and she even left room for some self-effacing comments too, and it was actually really funny. She's definitely the better and more engaging public speaker of the two, that's for sure. Granted, being a better public speaker is easy ;)

"At least I can pronounce nuclear" was a particularly nice jab ;)

The jokes relating to her being a desperate housewife who ended up watching Desperate Housewives because "Mr Excitement over there" goes to bed at 9/10pm, and how she and Lynn Cheney and Condi Rice had gone to the Chippendales, that that was how Mrs. Cheney now had the Secret Service codename "dollar bill" were quite racey for what you'd expect from her.

It'll be interesting to see whether Jon Stewart discusses that speech on the Daily Show tonight.

Comments

[thetragicclown.livejournal.com]

Aaah haaa, so George's TRUE puppetmaster is revealed at last! There we were thinking it was Cheney, Rumsfeld and co, when the true sinister intellect behind the President's actions was his own wife. I mean come on, she's bold enough to effectively belittle her husband on national TV. That's the seed of a conspiracy theory if ever I saw one.

;)

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

What's funny is that a couple of minutes ago I saw them replay part of the speech on CNN, and Lou Dobbs was saying that Dubya had said something today to the effect of how she had a couple of funny lines and had gotten carried away with the whole thing. Lou's comment was something along the lines of "Who cares, but he really should consider using the same writers she does." ;)

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

Maybe there was something in the delivery that didn't translate into print. I read highlights of the speech, and the only word that sprang to mind was "LAME" (yes, in all caps).

Delivery counts for a lot though, I suppose.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

I think most stand-up probably doesn't translate well into print. Just like some written comedy doesn't translate too well into visual form.

But yes, having her say it was a lot funnier than it seems when written down.

[funeralnight.livejournal.com]

I barely heard a small part of it when she was talking about the dollar bill and I thought that was a codename for her dogs.. anyway. :p I got back to my game than and paid no attention.

[draelynkhar.livejournal.com]

Jon Stewart did discuss it on The Daily Show. I believe the clip was the "Mr Excitement" & "Chippendales" bits. I was amused. Made me wish I'd caught it.