The Contrast

By PoliPundit ~ June 4th, 2003 @ 10:20 pm

Rich Galen notes the dramatic increase in the president’s stature:

CNN; June 12, 2001:

U.S. President George W. Bush has started his first official visit to Europe since taking office amid international criticism on a range of issues.

He is under pressure from some European leaders over his refusal to back the Kyoto protocol on global warming.

There is also criticism over his plans for a national missile defense system, while the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on Monday has also prompted fresh calls in Europe for the U.S. to look again at its use of the death penalty.

International Herald Tribune; June 3, 2003:

One more time, there was not anybody around at a G-8 gathering of world leaders who could speak in the name of Europe.

The leaders of the Old Europe have a problem in common with the Democratic Party in the US: No one has the standing to speak for all of them.

In two short years, nearly to the day, American President George W. Bush – whom the European press, if not the European political leadership, had written off as a “a shallow, arrogant, gun-loving, abortion-hating, Christian fundamentalist Texan buffoon” [Time Magazine, June 13, 2001] – walked into the G-8 summit in France with no one – not the press nor the political leaders – caring what any other person said or what any other person did.