Bruner Blog

Saw last night on Letterman a hilarious video of Bush speaking at some event, and on stage next to him is a dumpy teenage kid, probably 13 or so, dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and baseball cap, bored out of his mind and making no effort to conceal it. It’s a series of clips stitched together of the kid yawning repeatedly, looking at his watch, cracking his neck and back and finally falling asleep standing up.

Knowing Letterman’s style, he’ll probably use it repeatedly for the next week or so, so keep an eye out for it. It’s ridonkulous. I hope it haunts the kid to his grave. I mean, sure, Bush doesn’t exactly inspire reverence, but don’t kids today honestly have enough respect for their elders and sense of place to know that such behavior is inappropriate when you’re on stage with the mother-fucking President of the United States?? Apparently not.

If anyone happened to record Letterman and can turn this clip digital, or if you find it elsewhere on the web, please let me know. I could watch it for hours. It’s priceless.

Meanwhile, it got me thinking that now that the political campaigns have discovered the Internet, the DNC should really be releasing clips like those Letterman routinely puts together in recent months, apparently just mining CSPAN for Bush making an ass out of himself and then splicing together highlights reels. E.g., the spit-take of Bush hawking up a goober on the White House lawn. I think those would get the Dems some political mileage if released digitally for the likes of Fark.

Maybe in 2008.

UPDATE, 3/31/04:

Bizarre. Tonight, Dave reports that CNN got a hold of the tape and aired it. Then, apparently, immediately after its airing, the CNN anchor said that the White House had called in to say that the boy was edited into the clip. Letterman called this “an out and out, absolute, 100% lie.” CNN apparently then later corrected themselves saying that the White House clarified that the kid was at the event but just wasn’t standing in that position of proximity to the president. (Letterman showed the clips of the CNN anchors making these statements.) Again, Letterman called this “an out and out, absolute, 100% lie.” He went on to add that we should remember this when we’re in the voting booth in November, that the White House tried to make “me look like a dope.”

Then, later in the Late Show, Letterman gets handed a slip of paper saying that CNN has called the Late Show to say that it was their staff’s mistake, that the White House never made any statements. Letterman appeared pissed, having moments earlier accused the White House of lying. He expresses this annoyance to his producer, who he suggests should have fact-checked this important information earlier.

I wonder, is CNN covering up for the White House or are they just more incompetent than we thought? Moreover, I still really want to a copy of that tape again. Sadly, he hasn’t shown it again yet tonight.

Do any other Bruner Blog readers watch Letterman, or do you all just depend on me to summarize it for you? Can I get a witness? The clip was screamingly hilarious, yes?

FURTHER UPDATE, 4/1/04:

Staying on top of this issue, here’s the Late Show’s Wahoo Gazette commenting on the original incident and the ensuing CNN controversy. Wonkette also has an update on this (with more photos) called DaveGate.
EVEN FURTHER UPDATE, 4/1/04:

Leave it to Wonkette to find this, but the back-story is now on the Orlando Sentinal (registration required), as Bored Boy is son of Florida’s Orange County Chairman Rich Crotty, a big-time Bush donor, who notes:

“It was a funny bit.”

And when Tyler finally saw the tape, Crotty said, “he laughed so hard he almost cried.”

No tags for this post

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2004 at 11:09 am and is filed under aa-home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.