George Bush Channels Rod Blagojevich For His Last Primetime Address

The worst President ever is five days away from letting the nation exhale their long-held collective breath so that we can start anew. Barack Obama is going to start out big, signing the new S-CHIP law into place and repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell before going on to put out a stimulus that works for middle class Americans. But first, Americans will be figuratively bombed by George Bush on their television screens during primetime so that he can say goodbye one last time.

As if all those half-ass revisionist history interviews weren't enough, the 43rd President will annoy us yet again by breaking into the networks and putting his face on display to a populace that just wants it gone. Though there is going to be a twist in addition to whatever speech he makes and I just can't help thinking about Rod Blagojevich.

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush will give a farewell address to the nation Thursday night, billed by the administration as a chance to reflect on his tenure and welcome Barack Obama without fighting old battles one last time.

Bush will deliver the speech, expected to run 10 to 15 minutes, from the ornate East Room of the White House. He will have a small audience of people in the room, chosen for their stories of personal courage.

Now Gail Collins in the NY Times has a very good take on this use of a heroic audience but I'd like to go further. Of course, whatever great things the people on stage with him have done for their community or country, they will be reduced to stage props for a President that is trying hard to remake his image so that he leaves not looking like the tyrant that he is.

So why Blagojevich? Well if you caught his "press conference" post-impeachment charade on Monday you know why. Blagojevich used disabled persons to show he signed bills into law that helped people, asking if that those good things were impeachable offenses. Of course, it was an easy ploy to see through but when you have an ego like Blagojevich's but when you are the man it is a different story.

Now Bush isn't trying to save himself from prosecution (hopefully that is merely a "yet") but his advisers were probably looking for something positive that Americans could most easily latch onto. Back when he had approval ratings above 90%, people thought he was hero for getting tough with terrorists and showing the world that we were resilient (before the disastrous policies took effect that is). So maybe this is an attempt to paint Bush as a hero. It's a longshot but when you are tasked with PR for George Bush (or Blago), there really isn't much to work with.