Imagine, if you will, that legendary aviatrix Hanna Reitsch had managed to take Germany's chancellor with her when she made her legendary escape from Berlin in an Arado 96 airplane as the war came to an end. Can you envision that it's two or three years later and you spot a billboard in Berlin during the airlift portraying the former leader (Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz was named as the successor) with the caption: "Do you miss me yet?" Obviously it would be in German and use the Schwaben style font.
To put things in their proper perspective just imagine that sometime in 1955 Huntley or Brinkley traveled to Germany and got an exclusive interview with the retired dictator on his ranch in Bavaria and that he smirked and tossed off a line about "I consulted the best legal minds available before sanctioning the waterboarding." That hypothetical scoop will give readers a fair idea of which of the two was a better con man. It should be a gimme to see that Bush is much more devious and treacherous than the vegetarian (who distained smoking) could ever hope to have been. Only one of them connived to include all citizens as accessories to their torture program.
Neither Hitler nor Bush have ever been charged with (let alone convicted of) war crimes in court, so it seems that unless such a hypothetical grudge match could actually be held, their respective fans will (like the continuing sixties debate: Beatles or Stones) have something to debate every time they meet.
Hitler had a gimpy arm and Bush has been called a bully so our money would be on GWB if (in a Twilight Zone world) the cage match actually were to take place.
We were going to use what Robert Frost wrote ("Most of the change we think we see in life/Is due to truths being in and out of favor.") as the column's closing (apropos) quote but on the way to the Berkeley Public Library to use the wifi connection to post this column, we ran the premise of a Bush-Hitler cage match past Allison of Home 101 on Shattuck and she had a better one. She said: "They'd just give up and become friends!"
Now the disk jockey will play play Wayne Newton's "Danker Schoen," and two by the Andrews sisters: "The Beer Barrel Polka" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon." We have to go to Oakland and post bail for a friend. Have a "hunker in the bunker" type week.
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