I like his humor, I like his reflexes, I like the man for the principals he restored to this country and the fact that he has brought us 8 years of terror-free peace since 9/11.

I just hope this youngster, president-elect Barack Obama, has the reflexes of President George W., because what I saw on video when that 28-year-old journalist got off a two shoe shot at our president in Baghdad and George W., ducked on the first and then the second, all before secret service agents could come to his aid, was something to be behold, admire and yes, reflect upon with the symbolism the scene projected.

I’ll bet there’s some new training going on in Virginia.

Bush in a rather cool gesture said the shoe was a ‘size 10.’

Later in reference to a question of the shoe throwers motivation, he said he didn’t know, but he saw the ‘man’s sole.’

Yes, it will become a Saturday Night Live skit, and so what else won’t, for the events abound and are overwhelming these days.

It was kind of a litmus test in the Iraqi Democracy that George Bush brought to Iraq.  For the same incident would have rendered the journalist breathless by the time he left the room after the shoe throwing incident if Saddam Hussein were at the podium.

But, in a Democracy the journalist, who I won’t give a name to, is a folk hero in Iraq. He was decrying Bush as a war criminal.  Not too different than what happens right here in the US.  I hear it here on The View, almost daily, by the predominantly  left-wing hosts, but for one.

Although there will be many jokes made of this incident, it was more serious than funny.  From a security aspect it verged on a crisis, it showed how vulnerable our presidents are when their reflexes are greater than the secret service, it reveals the symbolism of democracy, something that President Bush stood for in his presidency, and, perhaps it shows what it really means when you try to force it upon someone that doesn’t want it.