This one comes from the Bizarre And Funny file on Bush. David Letterman recently has been having fun with the presidential campaign, first with his “Unfair Edit” where people like Bush, Kerry, and Schwarzenegger had their words blatantly spliced so they said things like Kerry saying, “If I am elected/I make you this pledge/that I will be/utterly inept,” or Bush saying, “In two weeks/members/of my administration and this Congress/will be/in a prison cell.”

A more recent gag on Letterman is the use of footage of Bush on the campaign trail, with either Bush or the people around him coming across as being incredibly bored. But his latest jaunt into visual political humor has gotten entangled in sloppy journalism and perhaps even bizarre White House behavior–depending on how this plays out.

The Washington Post ran this lengthy article on it, but in short, Letterman made fun of Bush by showing selected clips of Bush giving a speech with people standing in the background–see the photo to right. The piece was called, “George W. Bush Invigorates America’s Youth.” The boy on bush’s right (your left) was engaging in various I’m-incredibly-bored behavior, including great yawns, nodding off to sleep and catching himself, and looking at his watch–while those around him completely ignore his behavior. The clips as presented by Letterman, I am told by my father, are incredibly funny. But that’s not the end of it.

UPDATE: I found a Real player version of the clip, at 2 MB in size. I don’t know if it’ll work this way, but see if you can view it.

The RealPlayer file doesn’t work for most people. Here is the YouTube version:

The next morning, CNN picked up the video shown by Letterman and aired it, giving him credit. Then they reported that the White House called and claimed that the tape had been doctored, edited to add the kid in. Then Letterman went on that night and claimed the tape was genuine. Then CNN claimed that the White House never called them.

So there’s quite the mix-up here. I’m just waiting to see the tape of that kid. Sounds hilarious.

Also funny: this. Reminds me of an editorial cartoon I did over 20 years ago for the Stanford Daily.