President George Bush is now unarguably a model president. That is to say, a 30-centimetre model of the president dressed as a fighter pilot is on the market.
The action doll, entitled Elite Force Aviator: George Bush, will be available for $39,99 (£25.45). Its makers describe it as showing the president in full naval aviator flight uniform, ”exacting in detail and fully equipped with authentic gear”. He joins Barbie, Winnie the Pooh and Bob the Builder in a catalogue of models sold by a US toy company.
The doll is based on the president’s appearance in full uniform on May 1 on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Pacific ocean, when he officially declared the end of combat in Iraq.
Bush, who never saw combat during the Vietnam war because he remained in the US with the national guard, was at the controls of an S-3B Viking aircraft and overflew the ship before handing over to the pilot for landing. The flight and the president’s outfit were criticised at the time as a political stunt and have been much mocked by American satirists and comedians.
The toy makers promise that the model will come complete with ”helmet with oxygen mask, survival vest, g-pants, parachute harness and much more”. They add that ”this incredibly detailed figure is a fitting addition to the collection of those interested in US history, military memorabilia and toy action figures”.
The doll has already come in for the sort of flak Bush the pilot never experienced.
Mark Morford, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, wrote yesterday: ”It’s true. It’s real. The Bush action figure is a genuine serious item and not, as you would fully expect, a joke, not a parody…
”There he is, all faux manly and squinty and artificially buffed up, his gull-wing ears toned down and the thin-lipped brow-furrowed monkey confusion so common to his scrunched little face apparently erased by expert doll craftsmen and/or a drunken 50-cents-an-hour sweatshop employee somewhere in China.” – Guardian Unlimited Â