POLITICAL POINTS | 10.6 5:35 PM
Laugh, and the World Laughs With You
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. - It had to happen.
When President Bush campaigned in Pennsylvania and Michigan today, all of a sudden he was making fun of - President Bush. Or rather, his less-than-sterling performance during the presidential debate last week.
It was a subtle, but unmistakable, self-dig to his audiences in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Mr. Bush was criticized at the debate for two things: first, his scowling and grimacing as Senator John Kerry attacked him, caught by unforgiving cameras. The second was for describing aspects of his job as president as being "hard work."
``It wasn't easy for my opponent to become the single most liberal member of the Senate,'' he said here. "You might even say it was ..." - Mr. Bush paused here to make sure no one missed his meaning - "hard work." The crowd laughed. Mr. Bush grinned.
And in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., this morning, Mr. Bush listed what he said were Mr. Kerry's contradictory opinions on the war. "You hear all that, you can understand why somebody would ..." - another pause "make a face." The crowd roared and rose to its feet.
Mr. Bush is hardly the first politician who has turned the joke on himself to try to get past a difficult situation. Indeed, a few Democrats thought that Vice President Dick Cheney might take a gentle jab at Mr. Bush at his own debate on Tuesday night. Humor, however, was not part of Mr. Cheney's debate repertoire.
No matter. It seems a pretty safe bet that what voters heard today will be shared with the country when Mr. Bush gets his second chance at Mr. Kerry in their debate on Friday night.
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