I heard a report on NPR this morning about President Bush's trip to Estonia that said he would not be out in public during his stay in Tallin. Last week in Vietnam, an aide was quoted as saying that even though the President would not appear publicly, there was a "connection" as Bush's motorcade travelled from the embassy to the meeting hall in Hanoi. Apparently the person who made the comment forgot that the President's limousine has frosted glass windows.
The most striking part of the story about Bush's trip to the Baltic's was the comment that Queen Elizabeth, in a recent visit, spent time meeting and greeting folks in public, but that security officials in Estonia insisted people stay indoors when Bush's motorcade passed. So, if I understand this correctly, a monarch was willing to mix it up with the commoners but the head of state of the world's most powerful democracy wanted no dirt from the plebes on his suit.
He goes to Vietnam and manages to insult the leaders of a nation with which we are trying to repair relations, and refuses to meet the people he avoided protecting thirty-five years ago. He goes to a NATO ally and manages, again, to not actually learn who our allies are, and why they might be worth risking our blood and treasure.
It has been nearly twenty years since Reagan and Gorbachev stopped a motorcade in Moscow and the two of them strolled through Red Square meeting the people of the Evil Empire. How Conservatives have fallen.
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