>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>After your joke about the shoes, I was thinking that if most of the citizens in this country had starting throwing shoes at President Bush, while they would have been arrested, perhaps the Senate and Congress would have done their job and impeached him.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Yeah, preferably some 7 years go.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>BTW Did you see how he ducked ? Darn that was fast / versatile !
>>>>>>Like as if he was dodge-ball game champion rather then president {g}
>>>>>>I just cannot imagine any normal president who would manage to react that fast. ( Except maybe Blair {g} )
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Imagine for instance Presidents like Gorbatchov or Reagan or that old French president Giscard d'Estain ...
>>>>>>But then again, those were presidents of a different breed/substance; Kind that nobody would ever even contemplate throwing their shoes at.
>>>>>
>>>>>What amazes me is the guy got close enough to Bush to throw his shoes at him. Reportedly he was within 15 feet and threw two fastballs at Bush's head.
>>>>>
>>>>>An article in the NY Times yesterday said the guy is now something of a national hero in Iraq.
>>>>
>>>>He is a national hero of NY Times now.
>>>
>>>I'm sure you're right -- the Iraqi people bear no resentment against George Bush, it's just biased coverage by the NY Times. The Times was even clever enough to include a picture of a crowd of Iraqis holding up a poster sized picture of the shoe thrower, doing their woo-woo-woo thing.
>>
>>There is some distance between 'national hero' and 'resentment' though it could be easily bridged by 'clever coverage' as you correctly said.
>>Btw, would you like to say that NYT does not bear resentment against Bush? One may clearly recognize a sympathy to the thrower too. When sympathy is in place, it is just a small effort for a clever journalist to make it a 'national hero' issue.
>>Btw, what is your actual feeling in regard to this episode?
>
>No, I don't think the NYT bears resentment against Bush. Here is a guy who truly has hung himself with his own rope. Even if they did resent him, all they would have to do is report what he's done and said to make him look bad.
>
>The shoe thrower is no hero of mine. I think that's a childish and disrespectful thing to do to any head of state.

And think what would have happened to him for doing that under Saddam. At least partly due to GW's intervention he now has the right to "protest politically".
Now, I'm not saying I defend the invasion, et al, but his action is like protesting against the building of a new motorway across a beautiful valley, but then going and using it to commute to work.

I think to a famous incident a few years ago when an irate mother collared Blair in the doorway of a building he was visiting and harangued him for minutes, on camera. I don't think that could have happened with the president even - too well body-guarded.