Bush's PR Problem (Loss to Leninist leader on world stage)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27057-2003Dec1.html

President Bush's Thanksgiving trip to Iraq was a generous and bold-hearted gesture of support to American troops. What made it such a success, however, was that it managed to severely limit an otherwise unavoidable aspect of travel: contact with foreigners. When Bush has had to go beyond U.S. Army bases in recent weeks, the tours have not gone so well.

Traveling through East Asia last week, I noted how poorly most observers rated Bush's recent trip there. Even more striking, however, was the comparison repeatedly made between Bush's visit and that of Chinese President Hu Jintao -- with a thumping majority believing Hu had done better.

In Thailand at the meeting for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, "there was no question that Hu was the better appreciated one," a Thai official said to me. "He outshone Bush in most of the attendees' eyes." The trips ended with the two making back-to-back visits to Australia. Bush was greeted with demonstrations, his address to Parliament interrupted by hecklers. Hu, on the other hand, got a 20-minute standing ovation from Parliament. "It is Hu's visit rather than George W. Bush's that will provide a lingering sense of satisfaction and security about Australia's place in the region," wrote the Australian, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch and not given to knee-jerk anti-Americanism.

What is going on here? How does the chief representative of the world's oldest constitutional democracy lose a popularity contest to the leader of a Leninist party?
<snip>

[madrchsod]

1. do you get the

idea that the world really wants us to vote bush back to his pig farm?

[Zuni]

2. It is really sad when dictators

are held in higher regard around much of the world and even in the US than our own president. Then again, Bush is a coup leader making him only a step away from some Generalissimo or Comandante.

[JackSwift]

3. Bush is a fascist warlord

and most of the world sees right through the son of a bitch.

[VolcanoJen]

4. Not LBN... locking.

This piece, by Fareed Zakaria, is found in the "Commentary" section of WashingtonPost.com, and would be better suited for the Editorials & Other Articles Forum.

Please feel free to repost this article there.

Thanks!
VolcanoJen
DU Moderator