Maybe Soon Everyone Will Be Doing It (I Can Dream, Can’t I?)

By now, I’m sure everyone has seen this clip, and a large majority of you probably laughed as heartily as I did when I saw it. I suppose it’s a little optimistic to hope that somehow this will catch on and become a commonplace reaction to Bush’s post-term efforts to travel the world promoting a falsely positive historical view of his presidency (a la Ronald Reagan).

Still, it does seem to have the makings of a global fad:

Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Monday to demand the release of a reporter who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, as Arabs across many parts of the Middle East hailed the journalist as a hero and praised his insult as a proper send-off to the unpopular U.S. president.

(snip)

Many users of the popular Internet networking site Facebook posted the video of the incident to their profile pages, showing al-Zeidi leap from his chair as Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were about to shake hands Sunday and hurl his shoes at the president

Perhaps the viral symbolism might take a slightly less assaultive tone, like the Rude Pundit’s suggestion of sending old shoes to Dubya at the White House with an appropriately disdainful note attached, or maybe something like the outcry depicted in the movie, Wag the Dog, which led to a massive effort to use shoes as a reminder of something never to be forgotten:


Whatever happens, or even if nothing broader ever happens, thanks to Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the image of Bush ducking a flying shoe is the one that I’ll forever remember as the most appropriate response to him that I’ve seen in eight years.



In fact, I’m with Spencer Ackerman in noting:

I only regret that I will never get to throw my own shoes at this man.

And meanwhile, Andy Borowitz notes that al-Zaidi’s actions have likely earned him the honor of being tortured . . . by working for George Steinbrenner!