April 26, 2007 11:11 AM

If I Can't Dance...

If I can't dance, I don't want your revolution! - Emma Goldman

...but if they can't dance, will you be part of their revolution?

There's just something funny about watching powerful people dance. Maybe it's because we feel awkward about our own dancing. Maybe because the recipe that's one-part liberated, one-part self-conscious, one-part candid is just a recipe for fun.

There's no question that watching President Bush get down at the West African celebration in the Rose Garden is just damn entertaining (click the image to check out the video). This man whose delusional self-confidence has proven destructive and disastrous isn't self-confident now. He's desperately flailing to keep up or figure it out or just fit in...and he's failing on all fronts. Some have said that he started losing his grip on the American public when we started laughing at him. Watching this clip, whether deserved or not, we won't stop laughing...and we know his power is gone.

It does make me think, a little sadly, of a post from yesterday about the passing of Boris Yeltsin. A man whose decidedly mixed record deserved sophisticated scrutiny became a punchline -- a paunchy, pathetic polar bear, best remembered not for his stature during the attempted coup, but more for scenes like his awkward, erratic dance moves.

I believe we owe Yeltsin more than that memory. But dancing is worth a thousand words.

Think of what it did to a current American hero, Al Gore, who had to climb rung by rung out of the deep pit of ridicule to which he'd been assigned. In 2000, he was called a pathological liar (and that was by other self-proclaimed "progressives"), but his greatest crime was being "stiff" and "wooden." (In retrospect, American could have used a wooden President, rather than a paper tiger.)

And what better summed up this image of Al than the scenes of him dancing with Tipper -- looking uncomfortable in his own skin, uncertain beside his own wife and with a lack of rythm that was mistaken for being out of step with the American people.

Of course, if your own "friends" were calling you pathological, your consultants were second guessing every instinct in your bones, and the media was watching every step and every word for what would turn into your next "exaggeration," you might be a little uncomfortable too.

But then there are those that should be ashamed, yet aren't...men like Karl Rove, who connives to fire federal attorneys, then raps his way into the heart of the Washington press corps...who ought to be ashamed of themselves as well (click the image for all the amazing moves). What's even more fascinating than the flip-flop flapping of Rove's a-rythmic romp is his total lack of shame...for the dance on stage, or his two-step two-timing of the American people.

So, beware before you dance...the still photos are rarely flattering, the videos tend to be worse. And yet, if you truly break out, truly grab the moment and -- dammit -- just seem like your enjoying yourself, maybe we will take Emma Goldman's advice and join your revolution.