Upon arriving in Australia for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum earlier this week, the president set a dispiriting tone. Asked about progress in Iraq, Bush said, “We’re kicking ass.”
Oddly enough, the president’s visit appears to have gone downhill from there. Take this morning’s events in the Sydney Opera House, for example, when it took Bush just three sentences to get the gaffes going.
“Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit,” Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
No, it’s the APEC summit.
Bush quickly corrected himself. “APEC summit,” he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year.
No, neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members, so Howard probably didn’t extend an invitation to a summit neither can attend.
Talking about Howard’s visit to Iraq last year to thank his country’s soldiers serving there, Bush called them “Austrian troops.”
No, Austrians are from Austria.
Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way. He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop.
The event even started late, not because Bush was running behind, but because there were empty seats within camera range of the podium, and APEC workers had to scramble to fill them before the president spoke.
Now, everyone has bad days on occasion, but c’mon.
I realize that most of this is newsworthy because it reinforces existing beliefs. If Al Gore had inadvertently said “Austrians” instead of “Australians,” no one would have cared, because everyone’s confident that Gore knows the difference. If John Kerry had said “OPEC” instead of “APEC,” few would have batted an eye.
Bush has the disadvantage of low expectations — we expect him to make embarrassing mistakes, which makes it more noteworthy when he does. And sure enough, the president comes through every time.
It’s like the book excerpt we were talking about yesterday. After explaining his approach to “strategic thought” — which included neither strategy nor thinking — Bush changed his focus.
A moment later, press secretary Tony Snow stepped into the doorway to ask about the daily press briefing he was about to conduct. Bush offered some suggestions for how to defer questions about his Iraq strategy.
“Good. Perfect. Sorry to interrupt,” Snow said as he vacated the room.
“It’s okay,” remarked Bush. “This is worthless, anyway.” Then, in a sudden bellow: “I’d like an ice cream! Please!”
Is this trivial? Sure. Gratuitous? Absolutely. Funny? I’m afraid so.
Update: Gridlock reminds me that Bush’s communications trouble at the APEC summit go beyond than just one gaffe-filled speech.
“I think I did not hear President Bush mention the — a declaration to end the Korean War just now,” Roh said as cameras clicked and television cameras rolled.
Bush said he thought he was being clear, but obliged Roh and restated the U.S. position.
That wasn’t good enough either. “If you could be a little bit clearer in your message,” Roh said.
Bush, now looking irritated, replied: “I can’t make it any more clear, Mr. President. We look forward to the day when we can end the Korean War. That will end — will happen when Kim verifiably gets rid of his weapons programs and his weapons.”
These foreign trips just don’t seem to go well for Bush, do they?