I saw an article on the UK Guardian website claiming the turkey Bush was holding in his recent Iraq photo-op was a plastic fake. I Googled for an American news source to back this up but could find none.
Can anyone point to a news story confirming or denying this?
Not that I doubt the Guardian - they’re usually pretty straight shooting - but this seems a little, well, beyond. It’s also the only place I’ve seen this and I want to make sure it’s not an urban legend.
Capn
How hard did you look:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2001806972_bushturkey04.html
Here’s another cite, from Newsweek:
Turkeygate indeed! It was a one-of-a-kind “trophy turkey” according to the linked article – but a real one nonetheless, not a plastic one.
What’s the big deal here? Do people who see snapshots of the president (or the town mayor, or some movie star, etc.) shoveling a scoop of dirt at some grand groundbreaking actually believe that after the photographers go home he rolls up his sleeves and keeps digging the rest of the foundation? What upsets some people is just absurd.
I’ve always wondered what happened to those trophy/prop food items (that are actual food, and not plastic). Do they often get eaten, or thrown out, or what.
From what I understand, it wasn’t even staged - the President grabbed the turkey to pose with a couple of soldiers for snapshots and a press photographer was in the right place at the right time. “Stagecraft” indeed.
From what I understand it wasn’t fully cooked and the contractor had used a blow torch to give the bird a juicy, burnished effect. Course one journalist used this fact to assert that the president was dangling a “poisoned” meal in front of the troops. This was one of the worst abuses of making a story out of nothing I’ve been witness to in awhile.
There’s nothing here folks… move along.
Nothing, other than a FAKE TURKEY, which was what the OP asked about.
It wasn’t fake, it was a real turkey, but not fully cooked and not intended to be eaten.
I seriously doubt the event was planned beforehand, as it’s highly unlikely that the cooks and decoraters knew that the President was coming.
Just like the “Mission accomplished” banner on the Lincoln? 
Given how much media control this Administration has shown, I would not be surprised if someone was told ahead of time to make sure a fully-dressed turkey was available in the mess line. They might not have needed to spell out the President’s arrival, but the idea that the photo was a fortuitous coincidence goes against how this Administration works.
It seems to me that the old adage The proof of the pudding is in the eating might be a good standard to apply to thanksgiving turkeys.
There’s also a truly awful joke waiting to be coined about the worth of a bird in Bush’s hand, but that sort of thing is probably more appropriate to MPSIMS than GQ. 
Let’s just get this out of the way beforehand…
When Bush’s picture turns up next week standing next to a Christmas tree, THE TREE WAS BROUGHT IN FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE AND DIDN’T ACTUALLY GROW RIGHT THERE!
Some will, I’m starting to realize, look at every freakin’ event as an intent to deceive.
rjung: if there’s so much media control, how did the story of the “fake” turkey ever get reported?
From the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33090-2003Dec3?language=printer (my emphasis)
Mathew Gross on Howard Dean’s official blog http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/002517.html said this was
:rolleyes: Can you say “grasping at straws?” I knew you could.
Was there an expectation that a single turkey was going to feed everyone present?:dubious:
Huh? I lost half my post.
Any members of the First Family standing next to said transported Christmas tree are not trying to imply the tree suddenly sprung up right where you see it or that the ornaments truly were made by elves.
It will be a photo op, they will take advantage of it for political means but doing so doesn’t mean that they’d rather be off Bonsaiing kittens.
It’s gonna happen. Don’t get riled. Every administration previous and all those to follow will do the same darn thing. Seriously, what else would anyone expect?
It might not be a “fake turkey,” but it’s something very close.
And I don’t for a moment believe that it just happened to be there.
Now having said that: Is this some major big scandal? No. It was just a PR stunt.
I seem to recall in my long-ago days in the (American) Army that this is pretty well standard procedure.
Even in the US, in peacetime, our mess hall had one real bird for decoration, the food was from some industrial source.
Still, Thanksgiving is always a fine meal.
Cite?
A glance at the photo shows no visible soldiers posing with him, although two soldier with their shoulders to the camera are facing him.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33090-2003Dec3.html
Few are calling this a scandal: oh and sorry a guy posting 4 different news stories to a blog, the last of which refers to the faux turkey, hardly counts as trumpeting the issue.
It’s just PR. An example of a scandal might involve an administration that stages ample photo ops but few press conferances. Hypothetically of course.
I’m just wondering what the heck GWB was doing when he grabbed the turkey. It certainly looked like he was serving dinner, at first glance. Ah, he was probably clowning around a little - that’s my WAG anyway.
(Oops. The administration provides plenty of press conferences. The current POTUS is another matter.)
Does cooking a fake turkey make it real? No. This was nothing “close” to a fake turkey in any way. It was real, made out of real dead turkey meat. It once had feathers and walked around gobbling and pecking at dirt.
Of course it didn’t just happen to be there. God doesn’t make turkeys already dead and browned with all the trimmings. Someone, get this, put it there. Such display turkeys are standard fare for mass Thanksgiving meals, in and out of the military. I know - I helped prepare one once. It looked delicious. GWB saw this thing, thought “boy this is a great photo-op” and he was right. That’s all there is to it.