When life gives you lemons, the Secret Service gives you lemonade

July 27, 2006

You may have seen the very nice pictures of the president stopping at some kids’ lemonade stand in West Virginia this week. What you may not have heard is that the whole scene was, as Dan Froomkin described it, a “cynically staged photo op.”

The president’s motorcade came to a halt when Bush stopped to buy some lemonade from a South Hills girl on his way out of town.

Charleston attorney John Miesner’s 8-year-old daughter, Mary Melinda, set up a lemonade stand at their home on Bedford Road, but moved it Jim and Jean Miller’s property on Loudon Heights Road after the Secret Service asked them to move it.

Little did they know that the president would drop in for a cold drink. Miesner introduced himself to presidential adviser Karl Rove while the president spoke with his daughter and her friends.

Bush told the kids he liked their marketing campaign, which included signs that read “God bless W” and “Lemonade for the President, 50 cents.”

Is there any part of this presidency that isn’t choreographed?

By the way, just as an interesting side note, Bush did not drink the lemonade himself, telling the kids he had to watch his weight since he turned 60.

“By the way, just as an interesting side note, Bush did not drink the lemonade himself, telling the kids he had to watch his weight since he turned 60.” – CB

Apparantly, poison testers are not yet a position filled at the White House 😉

  • You know, eating a roll is going to add more to your weight than a glass of lemonade, even if you do spit some of the crumbs out.

  • I was curious about the change of venue so I people searched a map of the area (link below). The star marks the Miesners’ house, which is well off the main drag, of which Loudan Heights Road is part. By moving, the kids were put right in the headlights of the motorcade for their “spontaneous” encounter. Here’s what disturbs me:

    (1) The article says the kids were asked to move to the new location by the Secret Service. Clearly the SS was doing a sweep of the sidestreets to make sure everything was safe. But now they’re doing the work of advancemen? Sure, Rove, was there, but he wouldn’t have been with the SS. And if he heard about the lemonade kids and asked them to move, are we to understand that they are now at the Bush’s political officer’s beck and call? If so, that puts the Denver 3 situation into some perspective.

    (2) There is no mention in the article that anyone actually paid for the lemonade, which was be advertised as costing $.50 a cup.

    http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?addr=1533+Bedford+Rd&city=Charleston&state=WV&zip=25314-1916

  • I’ll apologize in advance for how obvious this is, but I feel compelled…

    Lemonade for the president: 50 cents
    Having a president who is not a total disaster: priceless

    Got it out of my system. Sorry.

  • by looking at angry young man’s map,

    So you take an 8-year-old girl and her lemonade stand off their safe, quiet 20 mph residential street, and put them on a high-traffic road full of irate drivers going 15-20 mph faster.

    Why does the Bush administration hate children?

  • Shades of pulling down Saddam’s statue: closeup (on American TeeVee) it looks like a rally by previously oppressed Iraqis; long-shot, there’s a huge space around a tiny group of Iraqis and behind that, the US tanks and troop transports which staged the event.

    I wonder: couldn’t we encourage the Bush Crime Family to stage the Regal Moron’s Impeachment? They’ll do anything for a buck. Soros? BTW, what’s happened to him.

  • “Lemonade for the President, 50 cents.”

    I hope that their price was 25 cents for everyone else.

  • Charleston attorney John Miesner’s 8-year-old daughter, Mary Melinda, set up a lemonade stand at their home on Bedford Road, but moved it Jim and Jean Miller’s property on Loudon Heights Road after the Secret Service asked them to move it.

    Little did they know that the president would drop in for a cold drink.

    Ummm… so why did they think the Secret Service made them move to a busier road in front of someone else’s house, unless the president was going to stop in for a drink?

    Christalmighty, can’t ANYBODY tell the truth anymore, about ANYTHING? Sheeesh.

  • When life gives me lemons I give them back to life and tell it if it wants lemonade it can make it itself.

  • damn you dale. i thought i had the cleverest post.

    Comment by angry young man

    Aw mine was luck, you did all the hard work.

    I just hope Rove didn’t find out about that lemonade stand from illegal wiretapping.

    I think it was Robert Fulghum who wrote as one of his rule to, ‘Buy lemonade from any kid who is selling”. He didn’t mention having the Secret Service relocate it for you.

    Bushies are the only one heavy-handed enough on the PR to turn a lemonade stand into a lemon.

  • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    angry young man:

    “…are we to understand that they are now at the Bush’s political officer’s beck and call? If so, that puts the Denver 3 situation into some perspective.”

    Agreed.

    I suspect an enterprising young reporter could make a name for herself by delving into this: Has BushCo managed to inflitrate the SS with his cronys too? Is the secret service now a weapon to be used for political purposes?

    It is beginning to appear so…

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  • Pardon the egregious typo:

    I gots to remember…

    When writing about BushCo it is:

    Dummies not dummys,
    and…
    Cronies not cronys.

  • If you get to look at the photo sometime, look at the cute spontaneous sign held up by a little girl, “I (heart) George W…”
    Yep, unplanned, right, not a photo op, right…

  • Carol: Yep, unplanned, right, not a photo op, right…

    Remember they only have to fool John Q. Media and John Q. Public.

    And those two dingleberrys are easily duped.

    So, for example, the caddywampus logic of:

    Little did they know that the president would drop in for a cold drink.

    And…

    Bush did not drink the lemonade himself, telling the kids he had to watch his weight since he turned 60

    Wasn’t necessary to mull over……….

  • KC, I didn’t say he’d gotten there yet. Just that the goal is clear. The man is reverting, his second childhood is approaching, and the effects of years of alcohol and recreational drug abuse are becoming apparent.

    Maybe Laura can hire Nancy Reagan to help take care of him. 😉

  • Well Foo!
    I missed it. Didn’t see it. hadn’t heard about it, certainly believe it.
    I was googling for a missing cousin named John Meisner.
    Serendipity.

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