THE Iraqi journalist who chucked his shoes at President George W. Bush at a news conference a decade ago is looking for a new job — the presidency of Iraq.

Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who at the time worked for the Egypt-based al-Baghdadia television network, launched both of his shoes, one at a time, at Bush’s head during a farewell news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad in 2008.

“This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog,” he yelled in Arabic at President Bush.

“This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq,” he shouted before he was tackled by the prime minister’s bodyguards.

The American president nimbly ducked both shoes, which sailed over his head.

“That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want to know,” Bush cracked at the time.

Zaidi was arrested and locked up for the attempted attack on a visiting head of state and spent nine months behind bars before he was released early for good behaviour.

He now apparently wants to be president, BuzzFeed News reported, after the rumours circulated on Twitter and al-Zaidi seemed to confirm them by retweeting several.

The president is a largely ceremonial official who, according to the Iraqi constitution, “safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq’s independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.”

A maximum of two four-year terms keeps anyone from staying in place.

Fuad Masum currently occupies the office, but the next election is May 12.

Al-Zaidi, alas, won’t have his weaponised footwear to use on the campaign trail, the website reported, because they were destroyed by US and Iraqi security forces in 2008.