Bizarro Bush

In the interest of doing what I can to dumb down the already-dumb election, let me make the case that Barak Obama is the Bizarro George Bush. The two men are opposites in ways that are almost spooky: Where one is polished, the other is rough; where one is too-cowboy, the other threatens to be too conciliatory. The man from Chicago has a manner that is measured and slick in a way some find condescending. The owner of the fake ranch has a clumsy locution that suggests an indifference to his audience at times crossing into contempt. One thinks too much about his words, the other too little.

Bush is scion of an old family, a child of money and power who pretends to be an ordinary guy. Obama acts elite, though he grew up poor, with no father. Even their names are Bizarro-opposites of one another. “George Bush” sounds wholesomely patrician; “Barak Obama” is ethnic, almost sinisterly so.

Does this portends an Obama victory in November. Perhaps (but remember, we're still trying to dumb things down) The pendulum has a way of swinging back. The liberal 60s and 70s gave way to the button-downed 80s and the neo-conservative 90s. Last year we had SUVs; today we drive hybrids. The Yankees are down; the Rays are up. And perhaps too-stupid Bush will likewise be followed by his Bizarro antithesis.