The George W. Bush version of "It's a Wonderful Life."

[Cyrano]

Yeah, we've all seen it a few dozen times and most of us don't want to see it again because we can recite it.

But let's take the last part of that movie and imagine what the world would be like if George W. Bush had never been born. (This isn't an exact science, but I'll give it a shot.)

To start with, who knows how many frogs would have lived nice lives because some psycho didn't blow them up with firecrackers.

Focusing on New Haven, there are probably many bartenders in Yale hangouts who would never have received some stupid nickname, or been insulted by good ole' George. And there are who knows how many coeds who might have had a more satisfying first sexual experience in which the guy paid more attention to her than to himself.

Many of Poppy's Texas friends would be far richer than they are, because they wouldn't have had to invest in Junior's business failures. And Texas wouldn't have to forever live with the shame of having had the stupidest person imaginable as their governor.

Saddam might still have his torture chambers, but they wouldn't have been outsourced to Americans who had no problem with the concept of torture. And as many Iraqis as Saddam might have murdered, my guess is we've topped his body count. Especially among children, women and old people.

Ken Lay and so many others would have spent the past few years rotting in the jail cells they worked so hard to earn. And who knows how many millionaires and billionaires would be sitting around brooding at tax time?

And how many residents of New Orleans would still be alive?

George, you may be having a wonderful life, but you've fucked up the lives of virtually everyone with whom you've come in contact.

[pnorman]

1. That brings to mind a video of that same title:

http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/wonderful.htm
(Sometimes it hangs up at the start. If so, right-click and hit "play").

pnorman