"Thank You America"

This weekend I caught Will Ferrell's one man show, "Thank You America - A Final Evening With George W. Bush." Right up front I will admit that Ferrell has W down pat and there were moments when I laughed so hard my stomach hurt (the military unit of monkeys comes to mind).

That said, the rest of the show was disappointing and at times sophomoric. What was lampooned here was the caricature of W from late night TV. We are all familiar with W's odd brand of cluelessness, bravado, and piety. That is nothing new. Unfortunately, that is the only ground Ferrell covers. In one and one half hours, we never get any deeper probing of Bush's worldview or assumptions, no reflection on the calamity of his presidency. Watching Ferrell's show, one could conclude that W's Presidency was funny sliding into incompetent. The show ignores the fact that it was also deadly and harmful. The very real and tragic results of the last eight years beg some serious questions. How does a self described pro life Christian needlessly take so many lives? How does a fiscal conservative turn a surplus into a deficit? How does a man who promised not to engage in "nation building" turn into a globetrotting neocon?

Those are just some of the questions. We'll never get the answers until we get by George W Bush -The Punchline.