During a recent meeting with President Fernando 
Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, President Bush asked in 
surprise, "Do you have blacks too?"

     National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (when you 
have a name like Condoleezza, do you really need a 
title?) came to the rescue, informing our president that 
Brazil has more blacks than any other country outside 
Africa. Of course it depends how you reckon, since the 
mixing of blood has resulted in a population in which 
most people have some African ancestry, and Brazilian 
color lines are less rigid than ours. But not many 
Brazilians could be mistaken for Michelle Pfeiffer.

     The fact is that four million Africans were brought 
to Brazil by Portuguese slave-traders before the trade 
was banned in 1888. That is eight times the number of 
Africans who were brought to this country. Nobody can 
know everything, but you might expect the Leader of the 
Free World, an Ivy League graduate, and a former Texas 
governor to have some dim awareness of the biggest 
country in South America.

     Not only is Bush's ignorance embarrassing; it has 
some bearing on the current controversy over how well 
informed he was about terrorist activities in this 
country before last September 11. No matter how many data 
were amassed and evaluated by the experts of the FBI, the 
CIA, and other agencies, no matter how skillfully it was 
winnowed and sent to the top, the man at the top -- the 
man who would have to make the crucial decisions about 
what to do with the facts -- was a man with a notably, 
even shockingly, skimpy knowledge of the world.

     In the end, our fate now depends heavily on the 
personal qualities of a single man. This is a far cry 
from the kind of decentralized government prescribed by 
the U.S. Constitution.

     Is George W. Bush equipped to exercise "global 
leadership"? The answer is all too plain. He is ready to 
pronounce whole countries "evil" without knowing much 
about them except that they aren't on "our side." And 
they called Ronald Reagan simplistic!

     Reagan was no scholar, and some of his gaffes were 
notorious. But he at least had a rough practical 
philosophy to guide him. His basic conservatism made him 
stable and predictable. Bush's indefinable "compassionate 
conservatism" makes him manipulable and unpredictable. 
And it's no substitute for a knowledge of the world. It 
merely makes him passive, subject to random pressures and 
sudden events.

     In truth, nobody can be ready for "global 
leadership." More power is concentrated in the U.S. 
presidency than anyone could possibly exercise wisely; 
there is too much to know, and even a man a hundred times 
better informed than Bush -- a Henry Kissinger, say -- 
still wouldn't know enough to perform all the tasks, 
foreign and domestic, a president is expected to 
undertake.

     The "democratic" political process, as it's politely 
called, is hardly designed to bestow the presidency on 
the man best qualified, or rather least unqualified. An 
unprincipled two-party duopoly offers the voters a stark 
choice between a pair of career politicians, whom it's 
usually fair to describe as hacks. If the Electoral 
College operated the way it was supposed to, it might do 
somewhat better; but it's now widely viewed as an 
undemocratic anachronism. And true enough, it was meant 
to prevent the very things the party system consistently 
produces, especially crass demagoguery.

     An old saying comes to mind: "He who is unaware of 
his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge." Bush 
would be less dangerous with his enormous power if he 
were conscious that he is woefully unfit for it. Such 
humble self-awareness can be a saving grace. It tends to 
retard rash judgments and decisions. A humble man never 
mistakes himself for a messiah.

     What doesn't the president know, and why doesn't he 
know it? About the outside world, American history, and 
the Constitution he is sworn to uphold? He still seems 
like a rich kid skimming through the Ivy League without 
bothering to get an education -- the son of an alumnus, 
going to ball games and beer parties every night except 
when he has to cram for an exam.

     He has somehow skimmed all the way into the 
presidency of the United States, and now he feels 
compelled to strike appropriate poses of "resolve" and 
"determination." But it all rings terribly hollow. He has 
come to great power without having prepared himself for 
it.

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