Blogging live from Charlotte International Airport...
...and wishing that I were part of the President's press corps. I would love to be on W's trip to Latin America, especially because he's making a stop in Bogota.
I'm usually very critical of George Bush, but I do commend his stab at diplomacy. And I'm also impressed with the agenda he's set forth for his visit to the region:
-- In Brazil, talks with President Luis Inazio "Lula" da Silva will focus on alternative energy, chiefly ethanol.
-- In Colombia, Bush will meet with President Alvaro Uribe on Sunday (his visit to Bogota will only last 6 hours) to discuss human rights and narcoterrorism. And to play it safe, 21,000 police officers have been deployed to escort the President during his visit. (Link is to a Colombian newspaper, btw)
-- In Mexico, President Vicente Fox and Bush will talk about illegal immigration and free trade.
-- In Uruguay there will be discussion of free trade as well;
-- and in Guatemala, Bush will discuss human rights and humanitarian aid for the country.
Though most reports point to Latin America's widespread dislike for W, the institution of the Presidency is a hard spectacle to ignore. In a region that's just cluttered with noise from despot leaders and the yawn of apathy from their citizens, what better way to shut up Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales than with the roar of Air Force One?
OMG - has the South made me a fan of W's macho-theatrics?
Eh, not so much. This is a PR boondoggle -- it's fun times for everyone involved -- it's a diplomatic hook-up. Everyone knows this is just a five day fling, no one in Latin America is expecting a call back from the White House with a plan to save the region...from itself.
4 comments:
PR issues aside, this is an important trip. The administration should have had someone paying close attention to South America all along--and that person should've been given access to some of those MSM types in order to keep the public alerted and the issues on the front page--or at least page 2.
Lula is coming to the U.S. in a few weeks. That's also good.
An often unnoticed benefit of such trips is the fact of lower echelon personnel meeting and establishing relation ships. These relationships are the foundations upon which successful diplomacy is achieved.
Wait, first you claim to admire his "stab at diplomacy" then you trash it as a "PR boondoggle". You were for it before you were against it, right?
HELLO?
This is a PR boondoggle
Would you like to revisit this statement in the wake of his successful tour?
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