… that when you’re a complete asshole, and you lose an election because of it, no one listens to you anymore:
President George Bush suffered his most visible diplomatic setback since his party’s defeat in mid-term elections yesterday when Asian leaders failed to back Washington’s call for robust action against North Korea.
Mr Bush, in Vietnam on his first foreign trip since the elections, had lobbied strenuously for a unified strategy aimed at getting Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions, meeting the Russian, Chinese, South Korean and Japanese leaders on the sidelines of the summit.
The rebuff – the second for Mr Bush this weekend on North Korea – underlined the president’s diminished powers in the wake of his election defeat. So too did the muted response to Mr Bush’s presence in Hanoi, a shadow of the tumultuous reception for President Clinton, when he visited Vietnam six years ago.
But that is far better than the hostile reception that awaits Mr Bush today when he flies in to Indonesia, where thousands of protesters were on the streets yesterday accusing the US of war crimes. Mr Bush is to spend just six hours in Indonesia after the secret service decided that it would be too dangerous for him to remain in the country overnight. Intelligence officials say there have been warnings of a militant attack during Mr Bush’s visit. […]
On Saturday, Mr Bush had failed to persuade South Korea’s president, Roh Mao-hyum, to intercept North Korean ships suspected of carrying nuclear material and yesterday summit leaders refused to commit themselves to a written condemnation of North Korea for carrying out a nuclear test last month, deciding to issue an oral statement during a closed-door meeting.
Oh to be a fly on the wall on Air Force One this past week.
No one respects a bully one second after he loses his first fight. That’s what happened to our Dear Leader on November 7th. Before now, international leaders feared him and at least had to pretend to play along with his aggressive posturing and moronic agenda. Now he is the lamest of lame ducks. Indeed, I really think we need a new term for him, don’t you?
I humbly offer the following title for Mr. Bush, one which I submit fits his diminished capacity to a T: Limp Duck in Chief.
