All in good fun

It's been a good week for Presidential humour. The gold standard, of course, is Reagan's "I've signed legislation to permanently outlaw Russia - we begin bombing in five minutes", which highlights not only his puckish wit but also a due sensitivity to the responsibilities of office.

Bush's intentional jokes have been few and far between - understandable given his commitment to building international respect for the USA- but it seems the prospect of forced retirement has enabled him to kick over the traces:

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his
presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Not to be outdone, Presidential wannabe John McCain has got in the act. Building on the early popularity of his "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" work

McC moved onto subtler ground in the following piece of improv:

I know some killjoys would insist that candidates for "World's Most Powerful Man" need to be a little circumspect, but frankly the procession from "we have major differences with this country" to "let's hope that its citizens slowly poison themselves" is so hilarious that we can give him a pass this one time.