E-Mail This Article to a Friend George Bush makes people mean. BY CAMILLE DODERO

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2004, NEW YORK -- President Bush is here in Manhattan. You can tell by the constant thrum of helicopters overhead, the dull choppy sound of heavy machinery weighing down on the city. You can also tell by the discordant honking-horn gridlock seizing different parts of the city as the President's motorcade shuttles him around, freezing up traffic for blocks. And you can certainly tell by how much nastier people have gotten in the last 24 hours, even ruder and more passive-aggressive than usual.

Or at least that's been my experience over the last 24 hours. For example this morning, right before noon, George Bush had just arrived at the Church of Our Savior on Park Avenue and 38th Street to attend an 11:30 a.m. mass. I'm across the street talking with Carol Zuckerman, a woman selling pins on the sidewalk, when a bald man with a buttoned-down shirt tucked into his pleated khaki pants approaches. He points at a pin with a George Bush caricature drawn beside the phrase LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE. "Oh, that's a good rendition of Kerry," he says.

She didn't bite. "That's supposed to be George Bush."

"Oh no," he grouses. "John Kerry is the liar. So that must be him." Then he looks at me. "Who's she? What's she doing? She taking inventory or something?"

"I don't know, actually," she says, even though I'd already told her I wrote for a paper in Boston.

"Well, you should ask her who she is."

"You could ask me directly, you know?" I say, right in his face.

"Excuse me," he says, avoiding eye contact. "I'm having a conversation with this woman."

I look at Zuckerman. "You should ask this man why he's such a jerk."

Then a television reporter with perfect timing approached, so the man slunk back.

But yesterday, it was worse. Right after Bush first got to town, I was trying to cover an absurd PR stunt: a mass anti-Bush protest panty flash. The panty flashers tried to keep the press back by placing flower pots on the ground and telling photographers to stand behind them. So I'm standing beside a flowerpot with a digital camera in my hand. From 10 feet behind me, a male voice yells: "Finish taking your stupid Mickey Mouse pictures and get out of the way!"

First I see that the voice is coming from a CBS photographer with gray hair and a pot belly. Then I realize he's loudly yelling at me in front of 300 people. So I kind of snap. "Why're you such a fucking asshole?" I scream back.

"Get out of the way!" he yells again.

"Why can't you ask nicely?" I demand. "Why are you such an asshole?" By this time, aside from the panties, we're the center of attention.

"What the—"

Before he says anything else, someone behind us shouts, "Calm down! This is supposed to be fun. We're all here for the panties."

The CBS photographer shut up.