Bush: Making Us Look Bad In South America, And Not Having Fun Either

by Steve

It’s just distressing to have a president who thought he could change the subject by traveling to another continent and rack up some more photo ops, only to find that he is even more reviled there than he is here. I'm sure that when this summit was put on Bush's calendar months ago, the political whiz kids in the White House Romper Room thought this would be a win-win for Bush to go down to South America and talk about free trade, our successes in spreading democracy throughout the Muslim world, the need to fight terrorism, yada yada yada...

A recent poll of Latin Americans in business, government, and education in six Latin American nations showed that just 17 percent of Argentinean leaders and 12 percent of leaders in Brazil viewed Bush positively.

That’s just pathetic, to have a president with that little respect, and yet Bush had truly earned the dishonor. According to recent radio reports in the last hour, they are expecting over 100,000 protesters today, with an assist from Hugo Chavez and others who were waiting for this chance and confrontation. But it isn't like Chavez and others in Central and South America don't have good reasons for wanting to challenge Bush directly.

Yes, there will always be thousands of protesters who can be bused in to protest against any American president who appears in South America, should they be motivated and organized to do so. But I doubt that there would have been this many to come out and protest Bill Clinton, Bush’s father, or Ronald Reagan, and I know there would not have been this much animus towards any of them.

And if you look at Bush's face as he dodged questions today on Plamegate and Rove, you can see that he isn't having fun anymore.

Even though Bush was hoping to talk about the Free Trade Act of the Americas, instead he faced questions about Rove, which according to the audio I heard this morning, he handled very uneasily and with some stumbling. But Bush didn’t issue a straightforward endorsement of Rove’s continued employment on his staff today either.

What you may see from this point on are the same questions over and over again about Rove whenever he steps out of the bubble.