1115.org

For the last five-plus years, we’ve had to endure the media formulation that the President’s popularity stemmed from the fact that a large portion of the American public “would like to have a beer with him.” I’ve never understood that, especially in light of his claims that he was magically cured of alcoholism by god on his 40th birthday and no longer drinks beer. Well, it seems we can add poker to the list of vices people would like to partake with George W. Bush:

BetCRIS.com, an online sports wagering firm, has received 14,000 answers to its unscientific survey asking visitors to its poker Web site to answer the question, “Which world leader would you play poker against?” Bush was first, the choice of 27 percent of those voting.

Because he’s a likable and friendly guy? Well, this was a poll of poker players:

In a news release, Mickey Richardson, chief executive of BetCRIS.com, speculated, “My guess is people want to play against Bush because he looks like someone that’s easy to bluff.”

No kidding. Anyone sitting with the President could just form a partnership with Ahmed Chalabi to feed him misleading information about everyone else’s cards. The best part is that repeated losses would probably make him more likely to believe the “inside” information, and thus go broke. I say all of this is premature and based on the assumption that you could keep Bush from yelling “Blackjack” whenever his hole cards added up to 21…

For the record, I’d avoid the Pope, (he probably has help from above) and try to play against Russian president Vladimir Putin because I hear that if you look into his eyes, you can see all the way into his soul. Not much of a poker face, that.