hegemony rules

Once again, PopMatters features a thoroughly engaging piece of political analysis that is littered with references to pop culture. This time, it's an in-depth analysis of George W. Bush's debating style and features such pithy brilliance as follows:

But with a twang and a wink, and Jesus popping up in every sentence where any sane person would use a comma, Bush Wonder Twin powers himself into the underdog cowboy while Cheney forms into a bucket of ice water. Bush is the reversal of all of our favorite good movie lessons, having every single life failure and character flaw met with more opportunity, having been coddled to the point where his ignorance is riveted static by his karma-violating privilege. Bush is the quitter's winner.
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Everything in his body language reeks of some middle management desk wrangler's dream about his own masculinity. Look at the way he holds the podium, with one arm gripping the corner like he's the Fonz giving it doggie to Pinky Tuscadero; the way he leans forward and flashes his hands, the sort of testosterone tic most women recognize as the prelude to a bad line. His head does a macho bobble doll roll, he pushes a contemptuous laugh through his nostrils and then he lets the left hand corner of his mouth do a Salvador Dali drip to the floor as if he's doing a lead-lined wad of Skoal. It's the pose he holds throughout much of the debate, a cunning affect to project, an image that attempts to frame the dialogue in terms of a choice between an action-ready Sheriff Lobo torn away from fighting evil to explain hisself to some equivocating pansy.

Interestingly enough, the comparison of Bush to a really awful middle manager in a large company reminds me of David Brent from the BBC series The Office (which, amazingly, I just saw for the first time this weekend.) If you've ever worked in an office, or thought about working in an office, or delivered snacks to an office, or even heard that there are such things as "offices" out there, you must rent this series. Yes, it's that good.