2008 truly is the year for throwing semi-harmless projectiles at important people.

In May, we reported how Steve Ballmer narrowly avoided becoming a human omelette after being pelted with eggs during a speech in Hungary. 

Today, outgoing President George W Bush was attacked by a shoe-hurling journalist, who displayed as much accuracy with his size nines as Tony Blair did with the dodgy dossier.

Both Ballmer and Bush escaped their relative attacks unscathed. So the big question is: who’s the best ducker?

Ballmer was initially a braveheart, standing proud and facing down a verbal assault from his assailant. When the eggs showed up, however, he was skipping round the stage like a Strictly Come Dancing contestant after a dodgy curry. His dive for cover behind the speaking lectern deserved a 9.5, but his hardman reputation went with it.

Bush, on the other hand, was – for possibly the first time in his life – simply magnificent. With barely a moment to think (and who knows how futile such a moment would have been anyway), W managed to duck two pieces of point-blank footwear that were thrown at the kind of velocity normally reserved for 20-mile tunnels on the Franco Swiss border.  If he’d shown this kind of calm and courage under fire in 2001, the world would be a very different place indeed. 

George W Bush: what a ducker.