  Tim Noah, of Slate's urlLink Chatterbox writes: "Read my lips" is funny—unless, of course, it's spoken to a deaf person—and swagger always comes across better when it's leavened with humor.
"Make no mistake," on the other hand, are the words not merely of a bully, but of a bully who lacks panache. I couldn't agree more. I always thought that Bush would be fun to hang around with at my uncle's barbeque or something. But when I actually think about it, I'm not so sure. If Bush weren't an ex-drunk we'd be set.
But alas, he is. And like so many of those who go dry, the President just isn't what he used to be. The thing that is most grating about Bush's style is his complete lack of humor. It's not so much that what he's saying is pompous, arrogant and devoid of anything vaguely resembling coherence and nuance, it's that he can't even give us a charming Ronald Reagan-esque smile, or speak with the kind of sharp-edged irony that his father displayed under the keen guidance of Peggy Noonan.
What was wrong with Bush's much-derided joke about "searching for WMD" in the East Wing of the White House wasn't that it was offensive, it was that it just wasn't that funny. It was like a skit from Saturday Night Live that was so bad they couldn't even convince Chris Farley to do it.
In so many ways, George W. Bush is the political equivalent of Tom Cruise -- an actor that we may remember as having been funny in Jerry Maguire , until we watch it again and realize that he's got no rhythm and even the funniest jokes sound forced and dry in his mouth. Perhaps Bush once was funny, but he is like a child at the grown-ups' table for Thanksgiving, trying desperately not to look like a silly little kid. Or perhaps he was never funny, and I just wish he could be so that I could say "I like the guy just fine, it's his policies I can't stand.
" Well, I don't like the guy just fine. At least some of his policies are funny. 
