Laura Bush, GWB’s Not So Secret Weapon

The First Lady, Laura Bush continues to amaze. This time she wows them in the Middle East. Laura’s popularity has skyrocketed, (“scoring approval ratings of 80 percent or higher”) and it would probably be the most opportune time for her to do a speech in one of the most volatile areas of the world, where “perhaps her most important mission will be trying to repair America’s suffering image abroad“.

“We’ve had terrible happenings that really, really hurt our image of the United States,” she said as she launched a five-day solo diplomatic mission to this volatile region on Friday. “People in the United States are sick about it. They’re very sorry that that’s the image that people in the Arab world got of the United States.”

One thing is interesting though is the media’s misunderstanding of Laura Bush’s popularity. They seem to think it just occurred after the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Ever since, the president has started nearly every speech with a laugh-line reference to the event. “I am sorry that Laura is not here — you probably think she’s preparing a couple of new one-liners,” he said at a Roman Catholic prayer breakfast in Washington on Friday. “But in fact, she’s winging her way to Jordan and Egypt and Israel to spread the freedom agenda.”

Seems to be that most Republicans knew this way before the dinner. Actually I cannot remember one speech that GWB has not mentioned Laura if she was not present and not because of her popularity, but because of their close relationship. Seems to me that I can remember ever speech that President Bush has done long before this dinner that if Laura was not present he would always say, “I am sorry that Laura is not here …”