BoatBanter.com - Don't Blink Twice, It's Alright!

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washingtonpost.com
For President Under Duress, Body Language Speaks Volumes

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, October 12, 2005; A07

It's only 6:17 a.m. Central time, and President Bush is already facing
his second question of the day about Karl Rove's legal troubles.

"Does it worry you," NBC's Matt Lauer is asking him at a
construction-site interview in Louisiana, that prosecutors "seem to
have such an interest in Mr. Rove?"

Bush blinks twice. He touches his tongue to his lips. He blinks twice
more. He starts to answer, but he stops himself.

"I'm not going to talk about the case," Bush finally says after a
three-second pause that, in television time, feels like a commercial
break.

Only the president's closest friends and family know (if anybody does)
what he's really thinking these days, during Katrina woes, Iraq
violence, conservative anger over Harriet Miers, and legal trouble for
Bush's top political aide and two congressional GOP leaders. Bush has
not been viewed up close; as he took his eighth post-Katrina trip to
the Gulf Coast yesterday, the press corps has accompanied him only
once, because the White House says logistics won't permit it. Even the
interview on the "Today" show was labeled "closed press."

But this much could be seen watching the tape of NBC's broadcast
during Bush's 14-minute pre-sunrise interview, in which he stood
unprotected by the usual lectern. The president was a blur of blinks,
taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man,
but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady first lady, he had the
body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere.

The fidgeting clearly corresponded to the questioning. When Lauer
asked if Bush, after a slow response to Katrina, was "trying to get a
second chance to make a good first impression," Bush blinked 24 times
in his answer. When asked why Gulf Coast residents would have to pay
back funds but Iraqis would not, Bush blinked 23 times and hitched his
trousers up by the belt.

When the questioning turned to Miers, Bush blinked 37 times in a
single answer -- along with a lick of the lips, three weight shifts
and some serious foot jiggling. Laura Bush, by contrast, delivered
only three blinks and stood still through her entire answer about
encouraging volunteerism.

Perhaps the set itself made Bush uncomfortable. He and his wife stood
in casual attire, wearing tool belts, in front of a wall frame and
some Habitat for Humanity volunteers in hard hats. ABC News noted
cheekily of its rival network's exclusive: "He did allow himself to be
shown hammering purposefully, with a jejune combination of cowboy
swagger and yuppie self-consciousness."

Perhaps, too, the president's body language said nothing about his
true state of mind. But the White House gave little other information
that might shed light on this. A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy,
entered the press cabin on Air Force One to brief reporters at 1:58
p.m. He left two minutes later, after answering the only question by
saying, "We don't have anything to announce."

The one newspaper reporter allowed to travel with Bush as part of the
White House's "pool" system reported back to her colleagues after the
"Today" event: "we were at a distance and could not hear what was
being said (a theme of the day)." Other than the "Today" appearance,
Bush delivered a one-minute talk to military recovery workers ("I'm
incredibly proud of the job you have done") and a two-minute statement
outside a school ("out of the rubble here on the Gulf Coast of
Mississippi is a rebuilding").

Certainly, Bush retained many of the gestures that work well for him:
the purposeful but restrained hand gestures, the head-tilted smile of
amusement and the easy laugh. But he seemed to lose control of the
timing. He smiled after observing that Iraqis are "paying a serious
price" because of terrorism.

As Lauer went through his introduction, the presidential eyes zoomed
left, then right, then left and right again, then center, down and up
at the interviewer. The presidential fidgeting spiked when Lauer
mentioned the Democratic accusation that Bush was performing a "photo
op." Bush pushed out his lower front lip, then licked the right corner
of his mouth. Lauer's query about whether conservatives "are feeling
let down by you" appeared to provoke furious jiggling of the right
leg.

Bush joked about his state of mind when Lauer asked Laura Bush about
the strain on her husband. "He can barely stand!" the president said,
interrupting. "He's about to drop on the spot." But the first lady had
a calming influence on the presidential wiggles. When Laura Bush spoke
about her husband's "broad shoulders," the president put his arm
around her -- and the swaying and shifting subsided.

The president, now on more comfortable terrain, delivered a brief
homily about "the decency of others" and "how blessed we are to be an
American." Through the entire passage, he blinked only 12 times.

Andy Borowitz?

No, I am afraid this one is for real. Andy, however, is the funniest
*gentle* wit around.

Well, it is hard to tell truth from fiction in your postings.

Excessive eye blinking *is* indicative of "issues", though. Of course, in
Bush's case, one doesn't need such a subtle indicator to know there are
problems.

WE can only read Harry, we do not see his blinking eyes.