Bush Photo-Ops Show Foreign Policy Gains

ISTANBUL, Turkey - With smiling allies at his side, President Bush has sailed through June with splashy photo opportunities to answer charges that he follows a lone-man approach to foreign policy that alienates America's friends.

Each click of the shutter captures the president smoothing relations with allies. Some "photo ops" amount to public makeup sessions with friends who have not seen eye-to-eye with Bush on policy in Iraq. But each image can help counter complaints that America has not been served well by Bush's no-nonsense style on the world stage.

"I think the bitter differences of the war are over," Bush said in Ireland over the weekend, before the surprise handover of power to Iraqis on Monday.

Recent anti-war and anti-Bush demonstrations abroad, including ones here on Sunday that attracted an estimated 40,000 people, have changed that, he said. Structuring the president's foreign events in ways that do not create domestic political liabilities is the central challenge of the Bush administration, Campbell said. Those that benefit Bush are the quick, "hit 'em" and "get out" appearances that don't remind voters of U.S. unpopularity in some countries abroad.

Bush candidly dismisses the anti-Americanism.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&e=6&u=/ap/bush_foreign_photo_ops

and I don't think any of the other leaders trust him as far as they can throw him.

Pic's might look great, but reality will rear it's ugly head again. The bushista's are burned to a crisp, and they know it. This is all damage control.

a lot of times when i see him i get creeped out.