Would Someone Please Tell the President to Knock It Off?

I realize what our Commander in Chief and leader of this great republic is doing in this picture will hit a lot of people as "folksy". (I'm guessing here -- after all, the man did get elected president at least once.) And I'm sure if I had cameras trained on me 24-7 I'd probably get caught in the awkward, compromising pose now and then. But doesn't second-term Bush seem to be taking a certain extra-special delight in this kind of clownish, cornball stuff? Unless I'm mistaken, this was the bunch that went into Iraq to send the world the message that the days of the U.S. being a joke were over. I mean, there's "comfortable in your own skin" and then there's acting like you don't really give a good goddamn how you come across.

I'll give Ronald Reagan this much -- at least the man knew how to look like a president.