Levity, Chicago-style

A section of fence surrounding the White House needed replacement. W's PR people caught wind of this and decided to set up a staged media event showing how W can interact with the common worker. They decided to get 3 bids, since this was a government project. One from Florida (a swing state), one from Louisiana (a state that could use some good PR in wake of Katrina) and one from Chicago (to show the country that W wasn't afraid to reach acrossed the aisle to a Blue State).

The cameras are rolling and fence contractors from all three locations are present. First up steps the contractor from Florida. He takes out a tape and measures the section of fence and concludes that it will cost $1500 to repair the fence, "$700 for materials, $700 for my crew and $100 profit."

The guy from Louisiana steps up and again measures the fence and pulls out his calculator and says, "I can do it $1200. $600 for materials, $600 for my crew and I won't make a cent. I will do it for love of country."

The guy from Chicago walks up to the fence and kinda eyeballs it and says, "I'll do it for $3200."

So W says "$3200!? How did you come up with that? That's kinda high and you didn't even measure it."

So the guy from Chicago says, "Here's the breakdown. A grand for me, a grand for you and $1200 for the guy from Louisiana to do the work."