President Bush: Sole Man

President George W. Bush made a surprise, farewell visit to Iraq over the weekend, meeting with the Iraqi Premier a final time before the Bush Presidency concludes.

Apparently, some of the international media thought Mr. Bush was on a scouting trip for his former ball club, the Texas Rangers, because one television journalist hurled his shoes at Mr. Bush during a press event in Baghdad.

Did you see footage of this?
The President ducks the first shoe, and thinks it’s a joke, by the expression on his face. Then the second shoe comes sailing out of the press gallery, and Mr. Bush ducks again, and he’s got this silly grin on his face, as if he’s not believing what’s happening…and thinking, "this moron reporter isn’t any better shot with a shoe than that at this range…?"

I see myriad opportunities from this for the President following the end of his term. If Bill Clinton was able to cash in on his, uh, diplomatic prowess following his presidency, just imagine the marketing possibilities for Mr. Bush with companies like Nike—"Just duck it"—or becoming the new spokesperson for Timberland, who’s slogan is “don’t wear it, use it.”

For Bostonian: “Duck again” has a few possibilities, too.

Zivas’ slogan now has new meaning.
I would imagine they would want to use footage of the shoe tossing to their advantage, as “the finest footwear for the active lifestyle,” although I doubt they ever thought it would apply to actively using their footwear as projectiles.

New Balance had a slogan a while back that could be tweaked entertainingly by this event. The tag line, “There are two motivations in sports. Which is yours? For Love or Money?” might be written about the two motivations in covering the news in the Middle East by slanted journalists: "Which is yours? Being on target or off?”

Still, the most appropriate shoe slogan that could have been applied in this incident belongs to Merrill Shoes, a maker of casual and outdoor footwear.
I think Mr. Bush should have walked over to the shoe-flinging flack, picked him up by the scruff of his neck, and simply said, “Let’s get outside.”