Bush gave a forceful keynote speech Wednesday at London's Banqueting House; the best thing about it was the tone of self-deprecating humor. He began by comparing himself to the American magician David Blaine, who was suspended over the Thames in a glass box. "A few might have been happy to provide similar arrangements for me," said Bush.
The speech continued with a cogent explanation of how Bush views the world, its dangers and American responsibilities. He courted European sensibilities by re-pledging allegiance to the United Nations, and he explained the moral imperative in Iraq in a way even Jacques Chirac could appreciate: "Whatever has come before, we now have only two options: to keep our word, or to break our word."
It wasn't Churchill, but it was among Bush's best speeches, and it drew praise from hostile commentators in the British press. It was the self-mocking jokes that appealed to several British people I queried.
"I think the boy did well," said Fitzroy Edwards, a 45-year-old immigrant from Jamaica who listened to the speech on the radio and found himself surprised. "I used to see him as a cold, stone-faced, arrogant man who looked like he was slinging a .45," Edwards said in a lilting Jamaican accent. "Now I do see a warmth in the man."
Thus the importance of Bush's London speech. It was his chance to show Europeans that he is not the truculent cowboy they imagine -- and that he cares enough about their views to try to change his image.
To judge by the British press, his tone impressed even those who oppose his policies. The left-wing Guardian said the speech made Bush's message "palatable, even attractive." Another critical paper, the Independent, editorialized that the speech was "delivered with a degree of verve, eloquence and even humor that defied his reputation as the least articulate American president since the silent Calvin Coolidge."
It will be a long road back for a president who acted for much of his first three years as if the rest of the world didn't matter. But Bush has at least begun that journey with his trip to London.
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