George Dubya Bush's European Vacation is over. One little tidbit from his meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair a week ago deserves closer attention. According to the transcript, Dubya was asked by a member of the British press "Why do they hate you, Mr. President? Why do they hate you in such numbers?" Dubya's response? "I don't know that they do."
Just last week I suggested that getting all of your news from chief of staff Andrew Card and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice might not be the best way to remain objective. "I don't know that they do" pretty much sums up his complete lack of understanding of the world around him. Was he not aware tens of thousands of demonstrators were marching through the heart of London in protest? They toppled and burned a life-size effigy in Trafalgar Square to show their anger for the Iraq war. The Australian states in an article this morning that Bush is generating real animosity, and not just outside the US. In a recent Time magazine poll, 48 per cent of Americans said they were unlikely to vote for Bush next November. This depth of hatred for an American President hasn't been seen in decades. To quote the article, "Nobody hated Bush's father, or really hated Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter or Gerald Ford." Bill Schneider, a political analyst with CNN and the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, is quoted as saying "There is real anger against Bush, but it's different to Clinton, I would ask conservatives why they hated Clinton, they would talk about his behaviour and his values, not his policies. He was a draft dodger, an abortion promoter, a gun hater, a gay backer. It was his values. Ask liberals why they're angry with Bush and it's his policies: Iraq, the Patriot Act, the environment, Iraq, oil drilling in Alaska, Iraq."
Bush doesn't know he's disliked by so many. Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot.
