Yes, the wrong variety (BBW are the CornishX of the turkey clan). If one was extolling the wonders of classical genetic engineering then, yes, the right bird. Native Americans often called the Wild Eastern Turkey Peace Eagle owing to that fine variety being one of the entrees served up when it came time to bury the hatchet.
Here is what the prez. said: Today, I am pleased to announce that thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha because I was planning to eat this sucker Courage will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate, (his writers need to get on the stick - terrible and delicious fate is what happened to the poor fellow who went over the rail into the vat of chocolate at the Hershey's factory a few years back).
There should be flocks of Bourbons and Royals on the National Mall year round just to keep the tourists on their toes and provide a colorful counterpoint to the true turkeys gobbling in the marble halls.
Below is a portion of a letter written by Ben Franklin to his daughter, Sarah Blache, regarding the Wild Eastern Turkey. Apparently the Order Of Cincinnati (after the Roman General, not the yet to be founded city) had a coin struck and the profile was poorly done `eagle or turkey?', his daughter mentioned it and Franklin replied as follows:
"Others object to the bald eagle as looking too much like a dindon, or turkey. For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing-hawk; and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. With all this injustice he is never in good case;but, like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the kingbirds from our country; though exactly fit for that order of knights, which the French call Chevaliers d'Industrie."
"I am, on this account, not displeased that the figure is not known as a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours; the first of the species seen in Europe, being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and served up at the wedding table of Charles the Ninth. He is, besides, (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that,) a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards, who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on."
I've read a lot of what Franklin wrote and it never gets easier knowing whether his tongue was in his cheek or not (good thing for all of us the French never figured it out, either).
ed: bad gwamma
