Who in the World Likes Bush?
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, March 16, 2004; 10:17 AM
Maybe we should just go to the United Nations and ask for a show of hands?
Questions about how foreign leaders would vote in November election -- which they most assuredly cannot do -- continue today.
As many have noted, this campaign feels more like October than March, with all the name-calling. It sometimes also feels a bit more schoolyard than Oval Office.
As Thomas M. DeFrank and Kenneth R. Bazinet write in the New York Daily News: "President Bush's spokesman called John Kerry a liar yesterday unless the senator comes clean with the names of world leaders he has claimed prefer him to be President."
And in a press release, the Kerry campaign responded: "If the President wants his White House press secretary to be the press secretary for the reelection campaign, he ought to get him off the taxpayers' payroll and stop using the White House for political purposes."
Dan Balz writes in The Washington Post: "Administration officials yesterday sharply challenged the credibility of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) for suggesting that there are foreign leaders who are pulling for him to defeat President Bush in November as Kerry attacked the president for failing to wage war on terrorism more aggressively."
Vice President Cheney took a few licks.
" 'At the very least,' Cheney said, 'we have a right to know what he is saying to foreign leaders that makes them so supportive of his candidacy.' . . .
"White House press secretary Scott McClellan called on Kerry to explain his remarks. 'If he's going to make those comments, he ought to back them up,' McClellan said. 'If he refuses to, one can only come to the conclusion that he's simply making up these assertions to attack the president.' "
Richard C. Holbrooke, President Bill Clinton's delegate to the United Nations, told Jodi Wilgoren of the New York Times: "It's so obviously the truth what Kerry said, and the Republicans are just having fun with it -- everybody knows it's true. . . . In the last six or seven months, I've been in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. I've met with leaders in all of those regions, and they have overwhelmingly -- not unanimously but overwhelmingly -- said that they hope that there's a change in leadership."
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero: Not a Fan
It wouldn't be a leap to suspect that Spain's incoming prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, might vote for Kerry in November, if he could. (But he can't.)
As Keith B. Richburg reports in The Washington Post, Zapatero "offered sharp criticism Monday of the Iraq war and the U.S. occupation and reaffirmed a campaign pledge to withdraw Spanish peacekeeping troops unless the United Nations takes control of the operation by the end of June.
"In comments a day after the surprise victory of his Socialist Workers' Party, Zapatero made clear that he would pursue a 'cordial' but decidedly more distant relationship with the United States than did his predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, one of President Bush's closest allies in Europe."
Mike Allen reports in The Washington Post: "President Bush telephoned congratulations to Spain's incoming prime minister yesterday as the White House worked to mitigate the diplomatic and political damage from the Socialists' upset victory after a terrorist attack on a crucial ally.
"Bush's aides said he began talking to other world leaders about his determination to remain on the offensive in the war on terrorism. . . .
"A White House official, insisting on anonymity to speak more bluntly than diplomacy might dictate, said Bush would work to be sure it is 'clear to all around the world that nations cannot make a separate peace with terrorists.' "
Hans Blix: Not a Fan
Warren Hoge writes in the New York Times that Hans Blix, the former chief United Nations weapons inspector now on a book tour, said yesterday that "he did not share the Bush administrations' view that the war had made the world a safer place.
" 'Sorry to say it doesn't look that way,' he said. 'If the aim was to send a signal to terrorists that we are determined to take you on, that has not succeeded. In Iraq, it has bred a lot of terrorism and a lot of hatred to the Western world.' "
Hoge writes that on the Today Show, "Mr. Blix charged the Bush administration with invading Iraq as retaliation for the terrorism strikes on the United States, even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attackers."
" 'So in a way, you could say that Iraq was perhaps as much punitive as it was pre-emptive,' he said. 'It was a reaction to 9/11 that we have to strike some theoretical, hypothetical links between Saddam Hussein and the terrorists. That was wrong. There wasn't anything.' "
Jean-Bertrand Aristide: Not a Fan
Peter Eisner writes in The Washington Post about former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return to the Caribbean. Eisner joined him on a flight from Africa to Jamaica.
"During an extended interview on the flight, Aristide was adamant that he remained Haiti's legitimate leader, but was coy about his plans. . . .
"During the interview, Aristide gave a detailed account of what he alleged was 'a coup and a modern-day kidnapping' carried out by the United States. U.S. officials have disputed his account. . . .
"Aristide's account was supported by two witnesses present on the evening of Feb. 28 and the morning of Feb. 29."
Jan Peter Balkenende: A Fan!
Bush meets today in the Oval Office with the Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, whose country has contributed 1,100 troops to the occupation of Iraq.
John Hassell of the Newark Star-Ledger writes that Balkenende said yesterday that "more cooperation between Europe and the United States -- not less -- is necessary to defeat al Qaeda, which is suspected of mounting the deadly attacks in Madrid last week."
Daniel Williams reports in The Washington Post that Britain, Italy, Poland -- and yes, the Netherlands -- are among the European countries remaining steadfast with Bush on Iraq.
The Bush Doctrine
Doyle McManus and Sonni Efron wrote in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday that the yearlong experience in Iraq has had many far-reaching effects on U.S. foreign policy. For example:
"The war was the first test of what has been called the Bush doctrine, the assertion that the United States may launch a preventive war against any country thought to hold weapons of mass destruction if it consorts with terrorists. But the war also has been the only instance of that rule being invoked; Iran, North Korea and Syria, which all arguably qualify, have not been attacked. As a result, scholars aren't sure whether Iraq was the beginning of a pattern or, as now appears possible, merely the high-water mark of an assertive policy."
The Optimistic, Conversational Bush
The president limos over to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today to participate in a "conversation" on health access.
Yesterday, as Amy Goldstein writes in The Washington Post, he was outside Philadelphia, conversing about home ownership.
"Increasing the proportion of Americans who can buy a house has been a prong of Bush's agenda of 'compassionate conservatism' since his 2000 campaign. This year he is invoking the theme often, because the nation's housing industry is relatively healthy, providing the White House a piece of good news as Bush rests his case for reelection partly on the assertion that the nation's economy is improving. The housing issue also fits into Bush's strategy to attract more minority voters."
Read the president's remarks.
In the New York Times, Richard W. Stevenson writes that "the political overtones of the trip, which was billed to taxpayers, were clear even before he took off for the Philadelphia area aboard Air Force One. Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is up for re-election this year, told reporters on the plane that he had spoken to Mr. Bush and Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, and that they hoped to eat into the traditional Democratic advantage in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs of southeastern Pennsylvania."
Specter, who is seeking reelection, is facing primary opposition. Carl Hulse reports for the New York Times that Specter's presence on Air Force One was a clear endorsement by Bush, in spite of the fact that Specter "has angered some conservatives over the years with a voting record that they see as too friendly to labor and government spending programs and not friendly enough to conservative causes."
The thinking: that "having Mr. Specter on the ballot in November could be a greater help in holding on to moderate Republicans in Pennsylvania" than his more conservative primary challenger.
Bush made it even clearer during his remarks: "I consider Arlen Specter an ally and a friend. Oh, he doesn't do everything you ask him to do all the time, but when you need him -- when you need him, he's there. He's an independent voice for the great state of Pennsylvania and he's doing a fine job as a United States Senator."
Thomas Fitzgerald writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "President Bush swept into Ardmore yesterday to tout the highest rate of home ownership in the nation's history, hoping to change the economic conversation from dour talk of job losses in an electoral battleground state.
"At the town-hall forum, Bush called himself an 'optimistic fellow' and argued that an increase in home ownership, historically low interest rates, and an uptick in industrial production last month were all signs of underlying health in the economy - despite polls showing that most voters are pessimistic."
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