Bush failed to charm EU, says survey

[emad]

Nicholas Watt, european editor
Wednesday September 7, 2005
The Guardian


George Bush's European charm offensive, which has seen him visit the continent three times since his re-election, has proved a flop according to a new survey which finds Europeans still overwhelmingly wary of Washington.

More than three-quarters (77%) of Europeans believe that transatlantic relations have either stayed the same or worsened in the past year, according to the survey, which was carried out in nine EU countries. A similar number of Americans (76%) have reached the same conclusion.


The survey, published today by the German Marshall Fund of the US, is likely to cause surprise on both sides of the Atlantic after Mr Bush's ground-breaking visits to Europe in the first half of this year.

Unnerved by European hostility to the invasion of Iraq, which saw relations with France and Germany plummet to their worst levels since the second world war, Mr Bush pledged to open a new chapter in his second term.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1564195,00.html

[goddess40]

1. bush only charms morons

Even the wealthy see him as a putz, like the kid that hangs around the popular kids in high school. the one they send to do stupid things just to see if he's dumb enough to do them.

[ixion]

2. no, see, that's the problem... * has always been the one ordering

you can tell by the way he speaks in his off camera clips. I knew guys like him in college, and always found them to be primary examples of the worst of the species.