That flight suit photo-op story is hitting the blogs in a form the dead-tree press most likely won’t, er, touch. Oh yeah, both the WSJ and the NYT recycled the “Bush-in-flight-suit-sexy” meme–to quote Maureen Dowd
Lisa Schiffren, a Quayle speechwriter who wrote the “Murphy Brown” rant, gushed in a Wall Street Journal piece entitled “Hey, Flyboy” that President Bush in a flight suit was “really hot . . . as in virile, sexy and powerful.”
She polled her soccer-mom girlfriends in Manhattan and got the same reaction. “He’s a hottie,” said one. “Hot? SO HOT!!!!! THAT UNIFORM!” said another. And a third panted, “That swagger. George Bush in a pair of jeans is a treat to watch.” (If it gets any hotter, Wal-Mart may have to ban The Journal.)
But will they pick up on “Republicans bring back the codpiece”?
Will they take up the growing speculation that Bush’s flight suit was–errrr–strategically enhanced?
For more visuals of the Bush Top Gun display, check out this WhiteHouse.org parody, scroll down, and click on “hunky flight suit sausage strut.”
Yet another Bush campaign photo op, paid for by taxes.
10 responses so far ↓
1 John Robb // May 16, 2003 at 10:20 am
The straps from the parachute/lifevest always do that.
2 Betsy Devine // May 16, 2003 at 11:16 am
I tried Google image searches on “flight suit”, “parachute straps”, and “Navy pilot” without turning up naughty pix of other fliers. Actual military types (like this man who lost a leg in service: http://www.af.mil/news/airman/0899/health4.htm) wear the straps in a much more comfortable position.
3 eric // May 16, 2003 at 5:29 pm
Climbing harnesses do the same thing. It’s those diagonal straps that do it.
4 Betsy Devine // May 17, 2003 at 4:12 pm
Eric and John agree–it’s just those doggone straps. Do straps plus air plus boxer shorts give this look? Readers would love you to send in the URL for a photo that backs up your claim–with (to quote Democrats everywhere) anybody but Bush.
5 marcum // May 17, 2003 at 7:29 pm
If want to complain about tax payer’s dollars spent on photo-ops, check this out. You should be so fortunate a fiscal Conservative is in office.
6 Betsy Devine // May 17, 2003 at 8:26 pm
Hi Marcum! Do (alleged) past wrongs mean we can’t laugh at current wrongs? I admit that George Washington was more “elitist” than Bush–Lincoln less handsome–and FDR smoked too much. Bush seems like a decent guy in many ways (getting serious here for a moment) but the people he lets advise him seem to me cynical, eager for short-term political success even at the expense of many American families. I do hope to be so fortunate as to see a fiscal Conservative in the White House–Dr. “Fiscal Responsibility” Dean, poet laureate of balanced budgets.
7 marcum // May 18, 2003 at 7:36 pm
Okay, which advisors are you referring too? Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Ari Fleischer, and Condeleeza Rice et al spent their entire careers dedicated to national security and the political economy of the United States. Which advisors are you referring too? The only cynic in the bunch is Donald Rumsfeld and that is because the Press try to make him put his foot in his mouth; he needs to be cynical to keep his cool. The others, are very very serious all of the time.
On the lighter side, I should be in NH tommorow. Been a bad couple of days driving from Tucson (tornados, etc).
8 Betsy Devine // May 19, 2003 at 8:23 am
Powell and Rice seem like decent people whose beliefs are different from mine; Rumsfeld you admit is a cynic; Fleischer just quit, here is a link to Cheney’s ongoing salary from companies making billions from sweetheart deals in Iraq. Today is so beautiful and full of sunshine, wonderful day to arrive in NH!
9 micheal tabor // Jun 3, 2003 at 1:00 am
given bush’s war record, a “flight” suit is
absolutely perfect for the gutless wonder.
as in “fight or flight”. Irony is a lost art.
10 Betsy Devine: Now with even more funny ha-ha and peculiar » Bush v Gore 2: Nobel Peace Prize for W? // Oct 12, 2007 at 10:19 am
[…] “Don’t let those @$*?*!! Norwegians mess with Texas” says a memo being circulated to right-wing bloggers. The appeal will argue that Bush reduced hot air by keeping government scientists quiet about global warming, that Michael Crichton told Bush global warming is bunk, that Al Gore once claimed he invented the Internet, and that Bush looks sexier than Gore in a flight suit. […]