February 8, 2004

Bush laughing on Meet the Press. Russert held up the Time Magazine cover "Love Him! Hate Him!" (showing Bush's face with one lipstick kiss mark and one black eye). Bush, off camera, totally laughed: "Heh, heh." Back on camera, he was still laughing.

Fake laugh? I used my BBC Fake Smile-honed skills to try to figure out if it was a fake laugh, even replaying it a few times with Tivo. A key aspect of the real smile takes place in the forehead. Hmmm... if they botox, they'll falsify their own smiles. But Bush isn't botoxed, because he crinkles his forehead in all directions sometimes. I'd probably guess fake laugh on this one, even though he seemed good-natured, based on the BBC approach to laugh analysis. But that doesn't mean he's a fake: why should a normal person actually feel relaxed and jovial while Russert is in action, especially when he's waving a picture like that in your face?

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