The irrepressible Vladimir Putin was in the news again this weekend, this time for racing a Formula One race car at speeds up to 150 miles per hour. (He only spun out once.)
Putin's powerful political position has allowed him to live out his Walter Mitty-ish fantasies to his heart's content. This was alluded to in an earlier post:
http://justnotsaid.blogspot.com/2010/04/vladimir-putin.html
It's now gotten far beyond the point where these activities appear to be a pose, calculated to win the respect of the Russian electorate; they now seem an integral part of his self-image.
It has been widely speculated that Putin is planning to run for Russia's Presidency again in 2012.
Perhaps, instead, he should just try out for a job he would undoubtedly prefer: replacing Daniel Craig as the next James Bond.
Then again, if you can actually be James Bond, or even better, his boss, why settle for just playing him?
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2 comments:
John, This post reminded me of Maureen Dowd's column in the New York Times yesterday about George W. and his new book. Near the end of her column, Dowd tells of a visit Bush made to Russia when Putin showed him his labrador retriever. "Bigger, stronger, and faster than Barney," he said, comparing him to Bush's dog. Funny that even his choice of dog is intended to feed his ego and send a message; apparently he couldn't even conceive of why someone would choose a "family" dog.
Even funnier was what the prime minister of Canada said later on, when Bush recounted the story to him: "You're lucky he only showed you his dog."
By the way, I loved your column entitled "Location, location, location." Very, very interesting. Is Johnny still home with you?
Anonymous --
Thank you. I saw that comment by Putin too, and also found it telling: he's a very primal man.
And thanks re: the other post. No, we took Johnny to the airport last Tuesday. He's now at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska. I'm probably going to do a post about that (the nature of Fairbanks) sometime soon.
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