By HAL BROWN
This week we learned that Anna Nicole Smith and George W. Bush had a common aspiration: to be remembered as an iconic American.
Anna Nicole wanted to be the next Marilyn Monroe.
George W. Bush wants to be remembered as equal to George Washington.
Marilyn and the father of our country were American originals.
Marilyn easily conveyed a blend innocent sexuality, vulnerability and humor that only a few movies stars like Sandra Bullock have been able to do.
George Washington was a general who took an ill equipped ragtag army and led them to defeat the world’s mightiest military power.
At the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783 he planned to retire to a bucolic life on his lush Virginia plantation. But then in the late 1780s he saw the nation foundering under the original Articles of Confederation and returned to public life. He presided over the Constitutional Convention which gave us the document that has stood up to onslaughts to its principles until the current president’s partially successfull efforts at undermining it.
George Washington could have been king. Instead he choose to be the first president of the fledgling republic.
There is obviously a huge difference between being famous for being famous and being famous for being the most powerful person in the world.
Or is there?
(Hal Brown is a clinical social worker and former mental health center director who is mostly retired from his private psychotherapy practice. He writes on the psychopathology of public figures and other topics that pique his interest. He can be found online at www.stressline.com)
18 thoughts on “Anna Nicole and George W.”
It is good thing W wasn’t around in Washington’s day.
Comparing George Washington to George W. Bush in affairs of state is like comparing Ephraim McDowell to Jack the Ripper in terms of surgery skills.
Dubya the Shrub is trying his utmost to push his pseudo-freedom onto other nations where he has no business even sticking his nose. He’s just what Doug T. calls him, a “megalomaniac”, along with all his corporate neo-con whores.
When I saw the news article on Dubya’s likening his “cause” to that of America’s first President, I was waiting in vain for another rant from Doug. It would have been the perfect subject to rant about.
That lowlife sonofabitch isn’t even worthy to tie the shoelaces of Curious George….if Curious George wears shoes.
Mike and others who may have missed George W. Bush’s words to commerate George Washington’s birthday which (accoring to the LA Times) “linked the ideals of the first president to the war being fought by the 43rd, saying Washington’s goals guided today’s quest to extend freedom beyond U.S. borders.”
BUSH:
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“George Washington’s long struggle for freedom has … inspired generations of Americans to stand for freedom in their own time.”
“Today, we’re fighting a new war to defend our liberty and our people and our way of life.
And as we work to advance the cause of freedom around the world we remember that the father of our country believed that the freedoms we secured in our revolution were not meant for Americans alone.”
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(Not specifically mentioning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan –although his meaning was clear — LA Times) Bush said of the first president:
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“He once wrote, ‘My best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever in any country I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.’ “
A young woman screws and old man and get billions, even going to the Supreme Court to prove she deserves it. Bush got the Supreme Courts ok, too and then became a president and is screwing the American people with an unjust war, Iraq was not our enemy, did not do 911, it was so bush could get billions, too.
He should wish he was Andrew Jackson, sending Indian people on the Trail of Tears to died….oh, I forgot he has already copied him, send our soliders to die on the Trail of Tears in Iraq along with 100,000’s Iraq civilians.
Yeah, he’s like on of our former President. But personally, I think he has outdone even Jackson by a long shot.
Jennifer/Wisdomkeeper
Hal, I wish you hadn’t besmirched Anna Nicole Smith by placing her in the same article as George W. Bush. As far as the “rumor” in post one, I’d bet $100.00 that ANS wouldn’t give President Bush the time of day when she was alive.
I seldom write here, but this woujld be hilarious (no pun intended) if it was not so tragic! When I read this article to Joan, my wife, she just about had a seizure…George Washington, indeed!
But is there proof that our worst President ever really did think he was another First President? Is this what they mean as the Napoleonic complex? Or worse?
Mike
Let’s see – Smith and Bush – what do they have in common?
They both claim to be Texans (although for Bush that’s not really true, but then again, given GW’s grasp of reality, should that shock us?). Both have problems with drugs and alcohol. Both have gotten celebrity without really having any real talent. Both are/were “created” personalities – ANSmith by various photographers and publicity firms, GWBush by Karl Rove.
There is a big difference – people mourn the passing of Anna, people mourn the life of George.
Peace
Steve
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