One of the barometers of public opinion and, more specifically, the mass culture conventional wisdom is the late night comedian joke. How are they reacting to President Bush’s latest policy pronoucements on Iraq? Here’s a cross section of jokes we’ve edited down from a list:
–“Earlier tonight, there was a big policy address from President Bush about the war in Iraq. And President Bush revealed his new strategy for that war. So, ladies and gentlemen, time to dust off that old ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner.” –David Letterman
–“President Bush announced he’s creating 20,000 new jobs. They’re all in Iraq.” –Jay Leno
–“President Bush said he’s ordering a surge of troops in Iraq. The last time a president had a surge, he got impeached, didn’t he? Oh, I’m sorry. That was an urge.” –Jay Leno
–“President Bush wants to send in 20,000 more troops to Iraq because he believes we can stop the fighting. Stop the fighting in Iraq? We can’t even stop the fighting between Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump.” –Jay Leno
–“President Bush addressed the nation with his new Iraq plan in a live speech broadcast from the White House library. Or as President Bush calls it, ‘My books-on-tape room.'” –Conan O’Brien
–“Huge fires in Malibu. … They are calling this the worst disaster to hit Malibu since, I guess, Bush won re-election.” –Jay Leno
—“I hope you caught the president’s speech tonight. I’m still glowing. Watching him address the nation is like hanging out with your best bud. You’re on the couch. He’s giving a speech. You’re drinking a beer. He’s increasing troop levels in Iraq. … Of course, I was a little disappointed the president didn’t go with my recommendation of 300 million troops. That’s a mistake. But you know what? If that’s the only mistake he makes in this war, then we are in good shape.” –Stephen Colbert
(Jan. 9:)
–“President Bush will go on TV tomorrow night to announce his new plan for Iraq, which means he’s got about 18 hours to come up with something.” –Jay Leno
–“President Bush is calling his new plan for Iraq ‘The New Way Forward.’ Don’t confuse it with the old plan. That was called ‘Winging It.'” –Jay Leno
–“Democrats say they will harshly scrutinize any new plan by Bush … unless there is a big college football game that day.” –Jay Leno
–“President Bush will address the nation tomorrow night and his speech is going to pre-empt the television show ‘Deal or No Deal.’ To appease fans of the show, the president will hide his Iraq strategy in one of 26 suit cases.” –Conan O’Brien
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.