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The question that has long puzzled Bush watchers is “Why does he smirk?” The Online Dictionary defines “smirk” as:
To smile in an affected, often offensively self-satisfied manner.
The dictionary’s thesaurus adds further to the term’s meaning:
A smile expressing smugness or scorn instead of pleasure.
Smile affectedly or derisively.
The negative connotations of these definitions are obvious. The Smirking Chimp blog has created a very good audience for jibes at the man they call “the Smirk.” So you would expect that only liberals and Democrats would use the word in connection with the President. Not so. A quick Google search turned up an astounding 469,000 hits for “Bush’s smirk.” Among them were some conservative heavy hitters. Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal:
The smirk is sometimes real; he can be full of himself.
On C-Span, Bill Kristol remarked about Bush’s:
Funny little grin, almost a smirk, that comes across his face occasionally at inappropriate times.
Everyone from Slate to the Wall Street Journal have speculated about Bush’s smirk. The number of websites with pictures of it or that have pasted it on other faces is an indication either of a lot of people having nothing to do or a pathological obsession with smirking. Yet no one has seen fit to conduct a genuine academic, by-the-numbers study of Bush’s smirking.
But you can bet that deep in the bowels of the Kremlin, apparatchiks have poured over hours of videotapes to unravel the mystery of the smirk. That’s why Putin agreed to go fishing with the President even though his advisors warned him he was taking his life in his hands if Dubya drove the boat–which almost came true when Bush ran it aground. As any fisherperson can tell you, fishing is a great opportunity to study smirks.
Since we don’t have an in with the Kremlin we are left with the psychological literature and that too is surprisingly thin. You’d think such a universal activity would be better studied, but apparently psychologists have stayed away from smirking–perhaps because they are prone to do it. So if you are a budding young graduate student looking for a PhD dissertation topic consider smirking. It would certainly get you an appearance on the Daily Show.
Timothy Noah of Salon.com tried to do a story on the smirk. He even called up a gentleman reputed to be the nation’s “leading smile researcher,” Paul Ekman, professor of psychology at the University of California at San Francisco. Ekman’s no dummy. He wouldn’t bite on this one:
I watch George W. and have many thoughts about it. But I have a policy about never talking about anyone who is in office or running for office, or is in litigation. So I can’t help you. I don’t know anyone responsible and knowledgeable who can.
Where academics fear to tread the amateurs rush in. Many of those 486,000 some entries try to explain the smirk, so here for your edification and amusement are a few of them.
From WashingtonPost.com comes Pittsburgh:
He attempts to answer — or more likely attempts to dodge — a serious question, then at the end he gets a wry grin or even a smirk on his face and chuckles. It is odd — he can’t even fake looking properly concerned.”
I think he does this when he is uncomfortable. It’s like when someone starts to laugh when they hear bad news, or if they say or do something they know is embarrassing. It’s their own personal defense mechanism. Most of the time, the person isn’t even aware they are doing it, and it’s hard for them to stop, even when you tell them about it. That, my BA in Psychology, and $3 will get you a cup of coffee from Starbucks.
Next is Margaret Carlson of CNN who called Bush the “Cheshire Candidate”:
No matter how remote Bush’s answer to the question at hand, he thinks he’s pulled the wool over the teacher’s eyes, that with his innate smarts and abundant charm, he will not flunk History 101. After all, it’s been arranged. He’s going to be President. The smirk may be a manifestation of an inner lightness that protects Bush from feeling inadequate.
Of course the medical profession has to get its two cents in. A vascular surgeon noted:
In observing our president’s expressions over the years, I became aware of a feature of George Bush’s face that revealed more about his inner self than anything issuing forth from his mouth.
President Bush has a disconnect between the right side and the left side of his face. While the right side of his mouth and the corner of his right eyes portray a smile, the left side of his mouth and the corners of his left eye convey a scowl.
Finally there is Ted Lang:
Take for example Bush’s beguiling, insidious smirk. It can be ascribed as the doofus expression of a truly stupid and uneducated moron, and is easily superimposed upon the visage of a chimpanzee, monkey or the cartoon personage of Alfred E. Newman.
So readers give me your theories on Bush’s smirk and I will print them.
NOTE: The Thursday Tweaker is another new feature. It will tweak various topics in a serious and not-to-serious manner, inviting your reactions. Who or what should we tweak next?
Print Posted by: liberalamerican
