Joe Hagan at New York has a lengthy piece up about what we can expect from Jeb Bush in the coming years, but some of the best stuff in it concerns the older brother who may have destroyed his chance for the presidency. W. remains all sorts of weird and denial-ridden: he’s sure that “history will vindicate him,” for starters. But—and I’m not one to fulfill Godwin’s law cavalierly—in many ways, he’s beginning to resemble Hitler.

At first it seems coincidental. The former president has become increasingly “agoraphobic” and contemptuous of the so-called “eastern elite.” Hitler was a paranoiac who died hiding in a bunker and railed against the well-educated bourgeoisie. W. takes the blame for a cratered economy, as did Hitler, if posthumously. There’s a further similarity, though, that’s positively glaring.      

Indeed, George W. Bush, now 66, has spent the past few years living as invisibly as possible, working diligently on his golf game at the Brook Hollow Golf Club in Dallas, showing up at a Rangers baseball game, or being spotted eating a steak in one of his favorite restaurants. While the rest of the world judges his years in office, he’s taken up painting, making portraits of dogs and arid Texas landscapes. “I find it stunning that he has the patience to sit and take instruction and paint,” says a former aide.

You know who else liked to paint dogs and landscapes? THAT’S RIGHT: HITLER. (Oh, did you watch the season premiere of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia too?) The Führer, it’s said, had a bit of trouble with the human form, so he tended to favor animals and lifeless mountains. Sadly, we’ll have to wait until Bush’s work goes up for auction before judging him equally talentless. I don't begrudge him the hobby, though—as Hitler knew, you've got to pass the time somehow when you don't drink. 


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