The audience was flabbergasted when the shoes, one after another, sailed toward President Bush as he gave his speech in Baghdad during his surprise visit. The second almost hit him but, with good reflex, he ducked. He even joked afterwards: “If anyone one needs to know, it’s a size 10,”...

Kudos for the lameduck for his humor and for ducking, indeed, when necessary. Still, the anger from the Iraqi tv journalist turned assailant was real enough and disturbing as he screamed in Arabic: “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog.” he was wrestled to the ground by other journalists – who turned policemen – and secret servicemen and then led away.

It’s that scream that stays in my mind. And I hope, president Bush’s, who, to his credit, managed to keep his wit. i hope he heard it well. He said he was all right and it didn’t phase him, but that’s just the problem in the last 8 years. Nothing phased him. He slept well, he had told reporters earlier on during the war. He believed, unwavering in what he did is right, WMD or no. Those who died under bombs were collateral damage, after all. Those boys and girls he sent were performing patriotic acts, after all. And those who were tortured, water boarded, kept naked and beaten, all those shot by mercenaries the likes of Blackwater who acted with impunity, were all done in the name of freedom and democracy.

A teflon president is one who won’t let reality sink in, no matter what. His steely conviction, however, has turned out to be a major personality flaw and a national disaster. His unwillingness to be swayed by others’ sufferings, seeing things from any one else’s point of view – He’s protected by more than good reflexes, apparently, he’s under god’s good protection, a higher power and anything that goes against his vision is a mere challenge to his conviction and fate; it reeks of arrogance – has led us to this point in the American history where we lost our good standing in the world, and are on a verge of an economic collapse while two wars keep going on, and on.

The size 10 shoes didn’t hit him but for the man’s sake, in dreams, where convictions often drop away, where the sheen of righteousness fades, and where the conscience often plays itself out in profound, if terrifying ways, may all the shoes and boots and sandals stained of the blood of the innocents, land where the outraged Iraqi journalist had intended. And may the man wakes up one gray haired morning, in cold sweat, full of doubt.