On High-Speed Trip, Bush* Glimpses a Perception Gap

CANBERRA, Australia, Oct. 23 — Minutes after President Bush finished an hourlong meeting with moderate Islamic leaders on the island of Bali on Wednesday, he approached his staff with something of a puzzled look on his face.

"Do they really believe that we think all Muslims are terrorists?" he asked, shaking his head. He was equally distressed, he told them, to hear that the United States was so pro-Israel that it was uninterested in the creation of a Palestinian state living alongside Israel, despite his frequent declarations calling for exactly that.

It was a revealing moment precisely because the president was so surprised.

In his six-day dash from Tokyo to the Philippines to Singapore, Indonesia and Australia, rarely did the searing suspicions of America's intentions — and the intentions of Mr. Bush himself — pierce the president's fearsome security bubble. But when they did, they revealed a huge gulf between how the president views himself, and how Asians view George W. Bush's America.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2003/10/24/politics/24PREX.html

The question every American has to ask is "Why isn't Junior learning?"

Try reading a newspaper there every now and again Junior instead of listening exclusively to the daily whispers of the court jesters who tell you how "wonderful" things are going and how "great" your "leadership" is.

that was my first thought. He should know all this.

I mean there is simply no excuse to be uninformed if you are sitting in the White House. You have access to the world's most sophisticated information gathering apparatus and a staff at your beck and call to furnish whatever information that you wish to peruse. That is of course if you cared to do so. If you are uninterested and expect that everyone will just "fall in line" behind you when you snap your fingers then, hey, why bother reading since you feel its unnecessary. You will just bang your hand on the table and demand that Congress does as you say. You don't have to worry about having to argue facts or defending your position.

and read the thing.

I know that you're advising Bush to get a reality check, but given that the media is in the government's pocket, do you think reading the papers would help?

(Unless it's the Guardian and other foreign sources?)

Maybe not as informative as it could be I grant you given the deterioration of the media's desire to be democracy's watchdog but facts such as these can still be found in "Pravda on the Potomac" and "The Paper of Stenographic Record" (some facts are too hard to fully bury) if only he bothered to give them a cursory glance every now and again.

NT!

shouldn't that be "Why aren't Junior learning?" :evilgrin:

Junior only knows what he's told in a soundbite condensed version of briefings

He may want to be in the driver's seat, but he doesn't want to steer

But repugs will say "he is an honest, moral man...he respects his wife" (this comment from the focus group they showed in C-Span tonight.)
From the same focus group: He is not very smart (but he surrounds himself with very smart people!), he lied to get us into war, we do not approve of the tax refund, we are worried about the deficit, we don't agree with sending the 87b to Iraq... but he is so likable I would like to ride with him on a plane (spending 4 hours without peanuts!).
He is crazy but Americans are even crazier!!!!
I should not have watched that focus group....

I.E. the oft repeated myth "Oh Bush is more likeable than Gore"
It would appear that the shallow cult of personality remains in full bloom.
Elections have been reduced to the level of Junior high school popularity contests in which supposed "likability" trumps ability.
"Well yes he is a royal screwup and I disagree with his policies but hey he's a likeable guy" is the theme. Apparently " He'll make me feel happy about getting royally shafted" is the "rationale."

But he moves his lips while he reads them.......

:-)

"everything i know i learned from Hagar the Horrible and Andy Capp"

You mean that lump in the bed? Ya Rightt..

We can only hope. Pray for the expansion of the Bush consciousness.

consciousness

1. The state or condition of being conscious.

2. A sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group: Love of freedom runs deep in the national consciousness.

Lighting does strike:

epiphany

1. sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.
A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization: “I experienced an epiphany, a spiritual flash that would change the way I viewed myself” (Frank Maier).

What a con game.

Duh...nobody told him nuttin!

People seem to accept feigned stupidity and lack of knowledge as a perfectly legitimate excuse. The bar has been set so low that a mere expression of astonishment is enough to satsify some folks that he is "concerned."

He doesn't muse out loud about things like this unless they want to send some spin.

I hope he'll one day realize that he'll be despised like this for the rest of his life; never able to travel freely or enjoy peace.

I wish a news program would show side-by-side footage of Bush and Clinton overseas.

Left half: Bill Clinton (or Dean, or Kerry, or Kucinich, or Gepardt, or whoever), gladhanding and meeting people in the streets.

Right half, background: A long-view shot of a tiny black SUV on the tarmac, speeding away, with a superimposed arrow: "Bush is in here." Right half, foreground: a group of people, this side of a chain-link fence. Some well-dressed, some not, but all with a common look of disappointment on their faces.

Caption at the bottom: So NOW which is "the party of the people?"

There ya go, DNC. No charge.

He probably did know but doesn't care! Acting like he didn't know gets him a free ride - covers his lack of empathy. Not only that, he doesn't have to take any heat now for not criticizing the general who implied that we were in a holy war. "Poor guy had no idea how much of an influence comments like that had and had to face this terrible scene in Bali on his own. He takes responsibility for his administration\army. Makes for a good commander in chief" blah blah blah. They can spin this thing in his favor way too easily. But only because people believe he is stupid.

hide. It's part of the scam. Have pity on the Prez, he's 'special' with a low IQ.

Perhaps he could check out DU for all the goings on in the world.

Newsflash: the rest of the world hates us and YOU, Mr. Bush, are the reason!!!!!

Whatever happened to the days when the President was an actual leader and not just a figurehead? Pretty sad. His puppeteers should load him up with info before sending him abroad!

that if you read a newspaper from time to time (and not just the sports pages and a headline or two) you'd have a fucking clue as to what's going on in the world. You see what happens when you get your news filtered and regurgitated for you by Condilar and Karl, you don't know shit and what's even worse you're so damn clueless you don't even know you don't know shit.

Every political act he has ever taken after 9/11 disrespects Islam and justice for Palestinians. Yeah, he has made some mealy mouthed pronouncements, but his actions and those of his administration are enough to convince any neutral onlooker that his conciliatory statements are outright lies, no more convincing than "the dog ate my homework." His view of the world is so naive and simplistic that he believes that once he makes a snap judgment that all interested parties accept his judgment and abondon their interest in the face of his facile snap decisions. The guy is so self-centered that only now does he grasp that no one but his ass kissing staff believe him? And you can bet they don't.

as some posters in DU (not so far on this thread) have suggested?

This prooves that civil disobedience, massive demonstrations, being rude and offensive at every single opportunity is now more neccesary than ever before.

Now we can add the nickname "Marie" to his many AKA's (as in Marie Antoinette when told of that the starving French had no bread replied "Why don't they eat cake?").

Reminds me of the story of how increduluous bunkerboy was when informed of the fundraising troubles of his fellow repukes replies "why don't they just grab their mom's phone list and call up some friend to donate" or some such nonsense.

That's why he uses the ear piece when he gives his BS speech. He also held a book upside down and that means either he is a dumb as shit or he can't read.

which would be a wee bit disconcerting, considering that 1) he is the "leader" of the free world and 2) at one time or another he flew a plane.

very intelligent. W was just to lazy to bother to learn how to read and his mommy paid enough for private education to buy him decent grades. W is a prime example of social promotion at its worst.

If you are referring to the widely circulated picture where Shrub's sitting down with an upside down book while a little girl standing next to him reads from the same book. It's not a good idea to use that as an example of Shrub's illiteracy. IIRC, if you look at the placement of the picture on the back cover, you can see by the size of the border around the picture that the upside down book that Shrub is using the picture has been manipulated.

Said so in an interview with Brit Hume on Fox. He relies on his Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor to relay to him what the newspapers are saying. The man is clueless.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/columnists/7027902.htm

This is appalling. (I've been using that word a lot lately.)

"But even some of Mr. Bush's aides concede that Mr. Bush has only begun to discover the gap between the picture of a benign superpower that he sees, and the far more calculating, self-interested, anti-Muslim America the world perceives as he speeds by behind dark windows."

He should fire his aides who seem to have an "Emperor's New Clothes" mentality. He needs to get out more. THe article says he only visited "sanitary" Canberra where few Australians other than government people ever visit. The Chinese PM was touring the rest of the country. But not George! He needs to get out a lot more!

It's frightening (and embarrassing) to realize that he really IS this stupid.

This is astounding. He probably has no idea that anyone protests about anything.

Oh, I think he should take a nice stroll on the Washington Mall.....say, on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25th?????????

right? It sounds like one of those urban legend e-mails people are sent and actually pass on to others as the truth.

"Hey look at me; I'm in the White House!"

He looks so out of place with the very diplomatic-looking Kofi Annan.

God to lead this war against terror and one of your top generals says we are fighting Islam which is "satan", the world might be just a wee bit concerned about "your" feelings toward muslims, dumbass.(Bush that is.)

This man really is the village idiot.