As for the birds in the sleeves, I have a potential answer. Magicians usually have some trick where a bird flies out of their hand from seemingly nowhere, so maybe it refers to Bush believeing he can "magically" win this war on terror and so he's gonna rush in their with the fools. I realize this is quite a stretch. As for themes of the National songs, while many of their songs in the past and on Boxer tend to be personal, I find that a few on Boxer have potential political undertones, ie. "Fake Empire" and "Gospel."
As for the birds in the sleeves, I have a potential answer. Magicians usually have some trick where a bird flies out of their hand from seemingly nowhere, so maybe it refers to Bush believeing he can "magically" win this war on terror and so he's gonna rush in their with the fools. I realize this is quite a stretch. As for themes of the National songs, while many of their songs in the past and on Boxer tend to be personal, I find that a few on Boxer have potential political undertones, ie. "Fake Empire" and "Gospel."