I can only hope this didn’t sound as bad in person as it does in print.
At one point, [Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva] even exhibited a map of his country, which is larger than the continental United States. “Wow! Brazil is big,” [Celso Amorim, the Brazilian foreign minister] quoted the American president as responding.
In the president’s defense, we’re getting this second hand — the NYT quoted the Brazilian foreign minister, not Bush directly. But who’s ready to say with confidence that Bush wasn’t actually surprised when someone showed him a map of Brazil?
Don’t forget, Bush’s history with Brazilian presidents isn’t all that great to begin with. You may recall, for example, that in November 2001, Bush asked then-President Fernando Cardoso, “Do you have blacks, too?”
Only three more years, only three more years…