WSJ Editorial: Batman Is President Bush

Via TNR, the Wall Street Journal publishes an editorial by Andrew Klavan declaring "The Dark Knight" really depicts our fearless leader:

A cry for help goes out from a city beleaguered by violence and fear: A beam of light flashed into the night sky, the dark symbol of a bat projected onto the surface of the racing clouds . . .

Oh, wait a minute. That's not a bat, actually. In fact, when you trace the outline with your finger, it looks kind of like . . . a "W."

There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.

And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.

No word yet on what Patrick Leahy thinks.

Comments

[Malarcus]

I feel the country would have benefited immensely over the last 8 years if we had, in fact, been led by a fictional comic book character rather than a live one.

[TrevorAlan]

You know I've heard that as good as the NEWS pages are, the EDITORIAL pages of this paper could be down right goofy.

And here's the proof. Once again I have to ask if it was really meant as a spoof of the 25% who still don't see we've endured about the worst President ever.

[booksnmore4you]

It's about time someone wrote about the political message in the Dark Knight! The message was immediately clear to me as I saw it, and I've wondered why the press silence on the matter.

[Ramirez]

Yep. The cell phone surveillance thing was a bit of a sledgehammer.

The Joker would not have been caught without it. And after catching the Joker the system was destroyed, because it was bad.

[axt113]

Because you are wrong.

Batman didn't kill, Batman didnt use the excuse of some unbeatable enemy to keep his spy technology forever, he destroyed it, Batman used his power to protect life, not just people on his side, but the bad guys as well, and in the end he made a sacrifice for the sake of the city.

[breakfast]

Repeat after me:

The MSM is not the propaganda arm of the government.
The MSM is not the propaganda arm of the government
The MSM is not the propaganda arm of the government
The MSM is not the propaganda arm of the government.

That's good. Just keep saying it.

[JimR]

Batman is driven by deep-seated psychological problems and took on a protege that developed into a relationship that appeared to be homosexual in nature.

I guess W IS like Batman!!!

[Ramirez]

The character of Robin did not appear in the movie.

[JimR]

Yes, I know that. Thank you. But the character of Batman did.

[filo]

Cheney is definetly the Penguin.

[ahornick]

Cartoon - the subject or the writer?

[TrooAmerican]

Well Now....
A) Batman doesnt kill innocent people, or harm them, or their families, or take away their constitutional rights just to get a bad guy. He might destroy their property, but Wayne repays them. Dubya just continues to scrooo us all.
B) Dubya has COmpletely failed to get the guy behind the 9-11 attacks, and has instead cost us a trillion dollars in iraq, 4126 dead US military, 35,000 maimed and wounded for life, and 300,000 with ptsd now having permanently damaged family lives at home.
--batman doesnt do that to those he is supposedly allies with. So in my opinion, that kinda makes Dubya more like the Joker or the Riddler or Two Face. Cheney is a Dead Ringer for the penguin.

[martinchill]

the batman lives in a cave, wears a costume and scares the sh*t out of people.

not exactly who i'd want to be compared to in the real 'war on terror'.

[samweb]

test

[martinchill]

c'mon - even in the delusional world conservatives like this Klavan guy have fashioned, bush is clearly Robin. he was a cheerleader, for cryin' out loud.

cheney must be fuming. his initials are DC, after all.

(klavan is a fiction author - with quite an imagination, apparently.)

[midknightryder13]

One last thing.

On SEVERAL ocassions, The Batman DOES violate people's Constitutional rights. But he also admits that he is not dedicated to the LAW, but to JUSTICE. (BW first considers becoming a police officer after his parent's death, but decides against it because he'd bound to follow the law -- too restrictive for what he feels he needs to do.)

However, on countless ocassions, he talks about how Commissoner Gordon CAN'T DO some of the things he does, because he (Gordon) SWORE AN OATH TO UPHOLD AND FOLLOW THE LAW!

Seems to me that GWB did the same thing, didn't he?

[dartagnan]

Good point. Batman is not a public official. He operates outside the law; he is a vigilante. The president is the chief executive of the United States and his principal responsibility is precisely to UPHOLD the laws and see that they are faithfully executed.

[axt113]

Lets also not forget that Batman follows his code of ethics perfectly, all of his actions were to preserve life, even the Joker's, not to mention even he has limits to how far he'll bend the rules, he built a self destruct into his sonar system, he didn't have to, he could have made an excuse like the Administration has to keep it forever, but he didn't

[4President]

This fool is more like that Harvey character trying to take the credit! I am Batman! No, I am batman!

[RonnieDebb]

Haha

[BADEN]

Naw...more like

"Well, it's good that your fine and it's great that I'm fine...."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hWP_rEWG2xk&feature=related

[DDike88]

A stretch far enough to dislocate shoulders.