I saw this headline (without the question mark), and I naturally thought: “Wow, China is throwing President Obama’s dog out of the country? That’s hardball politics!” And I wondered if Bo had pooped in the Forbidden City, or eaten all their Chinese food or something. Then I imagined the image of Bo being whacked on the nose by the ambassador with a Chinese newspaper, and getting a Chinese character printed on his nose; and then I imagined Bo being flown back to America ahead-of-schedule on Air Force One, with some presidential aide wagging his finger at Bo and saying: “Bad dog! You’ve set Chinese-American relations back 100 years!” But then it just ended up being about some Chinese guy who is also named “Bo”. And then, all of a sudden, it lost my initial interest.
But hey: China could make us all sit up and take notice of their power if they forbade President Obama’s dog Bo from entering China, too. That would show us! Then President Obama would have to get a dog named “Hu”, and banish him from the White House! Oh, but then they’d get into that Abbott & Costello conundrum of confusion at the White House, where everyone says stuff like: “Hu’s in the back yard.” And then the other person would say: “I don’t know: Who’s in the back yard?” And then the first person would say: “No: Hu’s in the back yard.” And the other person would say: “I said I don’t know! Who is in the back yard?” (Etc.) They probably already do this about the Chinese President (whose name is Hu), but this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and it would ruin diplomacy between China and the USA for good! But it would serve China right for having the audacity of hope that we wouldn’t find out and take offense at their punishment against Bo, when that's the name of the president’s dog! (Did you like that? The Audacity of Hope: Get it?)
BTW: The headline for this news story, with all the mandatory news puns these days, should have read as follows: Bo in the Dog House, China Says: “Bad!”
Here’s the Chinese, canine story:
