[redgirlinabluestate]

But to many a 9-to-5er stuck in rush hour traffic and otherwise trapped in a hum-drum middle-class existence, the presidency is perceived as the coolest job on the planet, this side of Steve Jobs' product-tester. So why come across to that admiring public as carrying out the greatest job on Earth with the same grim pursuit of a bureaucrat waiting to be vested?

I'm not so sure about the need to "lighten up." If anything, I think he could get a bit more serious about a few things. I think if he'd come out with a "secure the border first" proposition and veto a few spending bills things would improve dramatically. What do you all think?

[Mo1]

I think if he'd come out with a "secure the border first" proposition and veto a few spending bills things would improve dramatically. What do you all think?

I think I am getting sick of every dang thread being about the border ..

[Dog Gone]

I think every thread is an illegal immigration thread.

[Nick5]

The problem as I hear it out here on the street, in people I talk to day after day, can be summed up in this equation, which has worked its way like a tapeworm into the popular mind: Cheney equals big corporate/oil money equals massive profits for his friends equals high gas prices equals the real reason for going to war in Iraq. Try as one might to point out the logical leaps required to move from one link of this chain to the next, the tapeworm won't be dislodged from the afflicted brain. So maybe, just in terms of giving the President the support he needs to be able to stand up and LEAD, Cheney does have to go.

[Mordacious]

Less so than his predecessors, it would seem, Bush hasn't tapped his office for all it offers in ways intellectual, spiritual and, yes, even hedonistic.

Translation: Dude, find yourself a cigar and invite a plump thong-wearer with little sense and even less self-respect into the oval office for some executive dictation. That's what a good president would do.

[TheCrusader]

"I think if he'd come out with a "secure the border first" proposition and veto a few spending bills things would improve dramatically. What do you all think?"

I think that overnight he'd regain the support of his entire base, and probably garner some new supporters too. Most Americans are very unhappy with the border situation and the mountain of debt the President is piling up for future taxpayers, and I think they know the liberals won't do anything about it either. So Bush does have an opportunity to help himself and the Republican Party. Problem is, he's too self-willed and agenda-driven to do the will of the vast majority of the American people. He gets an idea, he lives or dies with it. I used to love his arrogant swagger and that condescending smirk because it aggrivated the liberals no end; but now I'm beginning to see why they detested it.

[Ditter]

This makes me mad! The media beats on President Bush every day all day long including throwing rotten fruit at him and then this guy complains he doesn't smile enough. What a jerk, he is part of the problem.

[Lakeshark]

The president, simply put, needs to lighten up a little and show that he's having a good time

This writer would be squeeling that W is having a good time while people died in Iraq, and that how dare he have fun.

Oops, is this an immigration thread?

[T.L.Sink]

I completely agree that Bush should take seriously and rethink his open borders policy that is bringing us social and economic disaster - not to mention the horrendous national security danger of some terrorists strolling into the U.S.

By the way, Fred Barnes who was mentioned in the post is a "big-government conservative" -- talk about oxymorons! Both he and his boss, Bill Kristol, are part of the open-borders lobby also. He's a Bush fan because Bush is not a true conservative.

[KJC1]

It drives the left nutzo that President Bush has a good sense of humor, even after taking potshot after potshot. I think this author is full of dung and trying to paint Bush out to be angry and uptight because they wish he wasn't so likable and humorous.

[CBart95]

You may have not noticed but we are in a war in which our terrorist enemies have declared they intend to deliberately murder children,old people,and all citizens of our country using any type of horrible means necessary to do it. Your President takes the matter seriously and really has no room in his busy schedule protecting you and the many souls of your non-combattant fellow citizens from horrible murder to, as you quaintly put it:, "Lighten Up".
Please don't take it too personally, but serious subjects are usually taken seriously by mature adults. (When you grow up to be a mature Democrat ,maybe someone will remind you how you were "used" as a youth.)

[Bahbah]

The president, simply put, needs to lighten up a little and show that he's having a good time, polls be damned.

This is a ridiculous comment. The President is virtually always sunny and cheerful. The writer of this piece should visit the Daily Dose for plenty of examples.

[altura]

Go to the Day in the Life thread. Bush smiles all the time...at children, at dogs, at regular people... maybe not at the media.

[rodeocowboy]

I have a more simple solution: Become a conservative and enforce the law on the border; become ruthless with the media and call them out like the morons they are; stand up for conservative principles and act as if you're not ashamed of them; and, most of all, defend your own positions and quit acting like everything is some back-door deal! Then, you, and Republicans for years to come, will win repeatedly. For once, the bi-polar talk show host, Mike Savage, has it right.

[Doctor Raoul]

More projection by the "Angry Left".

[RichInOC]

Have more fun? That's just some inspired advice, Bill. The Bushes do go out and do the fun stuff. They have done the talk shows. And do you know what happens when they do? Do you know what your paper and other media outlets mostly do with it? Unless you can spin something out of it, you guys bury it. One and done, if that. Because on your level, it's not "news". It's not exciting. It's not controversial. You don't get Emmys and Pulitzers and Peabodys for covering Dubya and Laura doing the fun stuff. You don't get acclaimed for being truthtellers to power for covering it. That puff-piece stuff's for the hicks at the affiliates and the smaller papers...well, it would be if it weren't for the fact that most of those guys take their lead from you. You crap on them every day, and then you wonder why they don't look like they're having fun. You people are pieces of work.

[rockrr]

Better idea.....tell the entire Dhimmicrat party to FOAD!

(Even if it doesn't bring a smile to GW's lips, it will to mine! ;'}