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| 2008-05-20 |
| Jay Nordlinger, National Review Reporting from the World Economic Forum conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt Next at the podium is Bush . . . The applause that greets Bush when he appears is very, very brief. And that is as much applause as he will get. I will not try to recapitulate Bush’s speech here, but you can read it on the White House website: here. . . . I remember when Iran’s Khatami appeared in Davos: He was greeted like some combination of Elvis and Gandhi. (He was known as a reformer, to be sure.) There were also representatives of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and the Assad dictatorship. Was the audience as frosty to them as to Bush? Bush-hatred is one of the most interesting phenomena of our times; to me, it is also one of the most disturbing. Consider Bush’s speech at this conference, and its calls for freedom, democracy, and humaneness. If Bill Clinton gave the identical speech, what would the reaction be? And if Barack Obama gave it, word for word? I can see people on their feet, cheering. . . . In all probability, Bush could have said nothing here in Sharm El Sheikh that would have gained approval. Nothing short of a self-denunciation. And a thought occurs to me: Bush stands for sweeping change in the Middle East. And he was talking to a throng of people for whom life is pretty good. On the whole, they are affluent; a good number of them must have domestic servants. They have positions of power and influence. They travel internationally, including to conferences like this one. They are the “haves,” the societal winners. And who is Bush’s Middle Eastern constituency? You could argue, they are the poor, the imprisoned, the hopeless. The poor need liberalization more than the rich. And no one in jail attends conferences. Bush’s speech would have been much better received in, say, Syrian prisons. In the next hours, I hear many reviews of Bush’s performance, and they are not good, to put it mildly. And I will tell you about a conversation I overhear — an American woman is talking to some Middle Easterners in a lounge. I am typing this column. A man asks the woman, hesitantly, “What did you think of Bush’s speech?” “Oh, I hate Bush,” she says. That is a jarring sentence to hear: “I hate Bush.” And she goes on. Some of her choice sentences: “Democracy is overrated.” “All of us Americans in the audience, we were like, ‘Do we applaud or what?’” “His approval rating is 18 percent. No one cares about him anymore; everybody hates him.” She allows that the First Lady, Laura Bush, “seems nice.” But then she drops this: “The rumor is he hits her, you know. Sometimes I see her on television, and I’m thinking, ‘Poor woman.’” Then our American seems to have a prick of conscience: “But I don’t know — maybe they have a great relationship.” Here is a theme I have sounded many, many times, and will again: The American abroad can be tough to digest. For decades, people have denounced the “ugly American” — the ugly American abroad. They mean conservative ignoramuses or loudmouths or bigots in Hawaiian shirts and shorts. But my idea of the “ugly American” is something else. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #4 “Democracy is overrated.” “His approval rating is 18 percent." If the first is true, then why should the second matter? Not that I'm expecting logical consistency from a moonbat. |
| Posted by: charger 2008-05-20 15:46 |
| #3 I would go so far as to say that despite all his flaws, the need for a leader like Bush is more urgent than ever. By that I mean a leader who isn't afraid to "speak truth to power," in the full sense of the term. Why do so many people in this country seem blind to that? I don't think that is something I will ever understand. |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2008-05-20 14:30 |
| #2 It's both unsettling and depressing to hear that the world, expect for this country and Bush, seems to care little for freedom and liberty. They only care about power and greed. And yet, that is what the liberals and democrats accuse Bush of being all about: power and greed. Something is seriously wrong when things get turned around like this. It does not bode well for the future. I fear that dark times lie ahead. |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2008-05-20 14:26 |
| #1 I'm surprised that the woman Jay Nordlinger heard wasn't rounded up and sent to Gitmo. After all, isn't that what happens to any American who dares to criticize Bushitler? /sarcasm |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-05-20 14:23 |