Team Bush unveils squirting flower leadership strategy

This article is the type to make dyed-in-the-wool righties go ballistic and the other 70% of the country cringe in embarrassment. Naturally, it's a must-read. The new White House strategy for uniting the nation? Operation: Shecky.

As he takes to the road to salvage his presidency, Bush is letting down his guard and playing up his anti-intellectual, regular-guy image. Where he spent last year in rehearsed forums with select supporters, these days he is more frequently throwing aside the script and opening himself to questions from audiences that are not prescreened. These sessions have put a sometimes playful, sometimes awkward side back on display after years of trying to keep it under control to appear more presidential.

Call it the let-Bush-be-Bush strategy. The result is a looser president, less serious at times, even at times when humor might seem out of place. Aides used to dread such settings, worried about gaffes or the way Bush might come across in spontaneous exchanges. But with his poll numbers somewhere south of the border, they concluded that Bush handles back-and-forth better than he once did -- and that they have little left to lose.

"It shows the range of his personality, the humor," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett. He said the White House has worked to put Bush out in public more, noting that he has had news conferences twice as often in his second term as in his first. "In a couple different ways, we've expanded his exposure," Bartlett said.

Yes, White House staffers are proudly congratulating themselves on the bold decision to have Fearless Leader speak without a script or a hand-picked audience. After a mere five years in office, we're able to see the 'range of his personality.' All the way from arrogant to ztupid.

What sort of knee-slapping hilarity can we expect from the Borscht Belt President?

At the same session, sponsored by Freedom House, a group promoting liberty around the world, a diplomat from Mali mentioned Bush's Millennium Challenge program to help poor countries develop democracy and complained that "we haven't seen any money yet." Bush responded with a joke. "I like a good lobbyist," he said, then acknowledged the program "was a little slow to get going" without explaining whether Mali could expect to receive funding soon.

Ha ha! Way to sock it to, uhhhh... emissaries from impoverished Third-World countries? No, wait--elite Beltway lobbyists! Yeah, awesome! Tell it again!