The baseball season starts this week, which may explain why I woke up in the middle of the night pondering the odd resemblances between George W. Bush and the Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs' losing streak is longer, of course. They last won the World Series a century ago in 1908. Mr. Bush's losing streak is only eight years long and can't get any longer, thank heaven. But he's lost bigger stuff--started an unnecessary war against a country that was not a threat to the United States, and he is now watching the economy tank big time. The Cubs just finish somewhere at the back of the pack every year.
They've had some bright spots--won the National League pennant in, I think, 1945, just a little over half a century ago. And Mr. Bush has had some bright spots too--showed up on time for both inaugurations, for instance.
Sportswriters like to describe the Cubs as "lovable losers." I don't know how you prove lovability, but it's certainly true that the fans keep coming out to see them year after losing year after losing year. Is Mr. Bush a lovable loser. Well, a loser surely. I think it's only fair to assume that Laura loves him, and presumably the twins. And the dog, I suppose; dogs are affectionate.
Another resemblance--they both work in really nice places. Mr. Bush has that big white house and the Cubs have Wrigley Field, one of the surviving wonderful old ball parks, with ivy growing on the outfield walls.
There are differences too, of course. The Cubs, I think, would really like to please their fans, to win the big one, to be loved. The Bush administration wouldn't care. Told that the fans were tired of a century of losses, I can just hear Mr. Bush's spokesman, Vice President Cheney: "So?"
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