The 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, now has a Facebook profile. The man who famously said he liked to “use the Google” to look at aerial maps of his ranch will now have a presence in arguably the most democratic publishing community in history.
So far the reaction has been almost entirely positive. That’s because you have to “like” Bush in order to be allowed to comment on his wall. For a large portion of the world, putting “I like George Bush” into their newsfeed would be like garlic to a vampire. You are, remember, either with him or against him.
It will be interesting to see if he adds the annual Bohemian Grove gathering to his Facebook events listings (you can post photos by Facebook mobile, GW!), or what kinds of organizations he “likes.” You know he’s going to get confused by the privacy settings – who doesn’t?
That is all. Go now, and write messages on his wall.
Update: As one reader pointed out in comments, this is a Fan page, not a personal profile. So the requirement that a user “likes” the page before commenting is just a convenient part of how Facebook works. As a Fan page, the account does not have a field for making friends. In other words, George Bush may be on Facebook, but he does not have any friends. Is it better to have Fans than to have Friends? Such are the question for the ages that our former leader must now ponder.
