Bush boasts of ‘rock star’ reception

February 17, 2008

Bush appeared alongside Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete for a press conference at Dar Es Salaam this morning, and was apparently annoyed that reporters were interested in a certain senator from Illinois who is running for president with African roots.

Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press asked Bush a question about his AIDS relief plan and then turned to Kikwete to note the excitement in Africa about Obama’s candidacy and asked the African leader to comment on “what you think it says about America that we might elect a black President with roots in Africa?”

Even though that part of the question was not directed at him, Bush weighed in first with mock exasperation that everyone seemed to be forgetting he was treated like a rock star on the trip. “It seemed like there was a lot of excitement for me, wait a minute,” the President said to laughter. “Maybe you missed it.”

It’s always about him, isn’t it?

It’s going to be hard for Little George when his term is over and he’s retreated to Crawford or Dallas or Paraguay, or wherever Laura finds it easiest to put up with him. No more rock-star treatment. Not so many speaking engagements as he expects, looking forward to “replenishing the ol’ coffers.” After six months in retirement, he will probably be checking with the phone company to see if the phone isn’t ringing because it’s out of order.

Perhaps he’ll write a book. He can charge his Big Chief tablets to his ex-presidential expense account.

  • He would have had a more difficult time fielding the question with his usual witty repartee had the Africans not been too polite to frame the question, “do you believe there will be an immediate rise in the intellect of the country as soon as you have to take your sorry brushcutting ass back to Crawford, and the country is no longer ruled by a wilfully ignorant yahoo with a room-temperature IQ?”

  • Oh, come on. I dislike Bush as much as anyone, but is it entirely unreasonable for the president of the US to expect to be the center of attention in Tanzania? And it sounds like he had a sense of humor about it, even.

    Let’s get back to talking about his lies, corruption, poor policy decisions, lack of intelligence, and general sliminess. This bit of outrage seems kind of forced.

  • ’50:50 he trashes his hotel room tonight.’

    Well, wets the bed at any rate.

  • A former cokehead with an entourage of sycophants and a diva sensibility.

    Sounds like a rock star to me.

  • Could the Bush’s look anymore uncomfortable.
    Laura – “Pssst, George, do they really expect us to touch them ?”

    It wasn’t rockstar mentality, it was more like “I will be damned if I came to this shithole, listened to you africa jibber-jabber, ate your africa crap, and wear your stupid africa junk, to talk about that black Democrat, have you no respect ?”

  • Boy, I hope he doesn’t screw up the negotiations in Kenya. I can’t imagine a much worse thing than being Kofi Annan this week – in the middle of very delicate negotiations to deal with post-election violence, then George Bush shows up and starts prattling on about good governance and making demands about how the US expects the Kenyan government to work.

    It’s almost as if Bush went looking for a delicate situation that he could screw up.

  • CNN:

    Surely this was just a case of Kikwete being a smart politician who didn’t fall into the trap of upstaging his guest. But then again, that $700 million aid check Bush had forked over to Kikwete a few minutes earlier probably fostered a wee bit of goodwill too.

    From the AP:

    Tanzania, an agriculture-driven country of roughly 40 million people, is trying to broaden its ties to the U.S. across political, economic and military fronts. It is the latest country to reap benefits from the Millennium Challenge Account, one of the initiatives underpinning his trip to Africa. It provides U.S. aid to countries that govern justly, shun corruption, help their people and support economic freedoms.

    The nearly $700 million compact, which Bush is signing Sunday, is the largest in the program’s history. Much of it will underwrite improvements to the country’s transportation.

    Yet the timing is awkward, given all the emphasis on good governance.

    Just this month, Kikwete dissolved his entire Cabinet over a corruption scandal involving a contract with a nonexistent firm supposedly based in the United States.

    Bush is scheduled to visit Rwanda on this trip. Maybe he’ll apologize all over again on behalf of President Clinton.

  • Does anyone have the radio frequency for Air Force One? I’d like to personally appeal to the human nature of the flight crew—and ask them to bring the plane home now.

    While leaving Bu$h in Africa, of course….

  • Mark @ 3: LOL! I appreciate such eloquence. I would so pay to hear something like that actually said to the chimperor’s face in public.

  • I think, especially in the US, too much of the press about Bush’s visit has been focused on him. It’s fairly rare for international attention to be so focused on a country like Tanzania. Having spent alot of time recently in Tanzania, I hope this is an opportunity for the media to highlight some of the incredible local people making a difference in this beautiful country, like the kids singing about HIV/AIDSS in this YouTube video and Mama Lucy Kamptoni, the passionate local woman who founded their amazing school using the income from her poultry business. Learn more at http://www.epicchange.org or on my blog at http://www.epicchange.org/blog.

  • I’m not “outraged” Brooks. I am embarrassed, because the president of my country is a selfish jackass. (& Mark: you must love a cold room.) I’d much prefer he didn’t leave the country because it seems that whenever he goes anywhere, he just embarrasses the USA. Of course, he also does this by staying home.

  • I think it’s great the American taxpayers can afford to spend $30 billion over five years to fight aids in Africa at the behest of Bush. Too bad we couldn’t spend $35 billion for America’s children due to the vetoed SCHIP bill by the same President

  • The AZT drug Bush is promoting is actually the aids virus itself, The 4 horseman are on the lose, Rumsfield, Cheny and Rove, are out spreading other vermon.

  • What is embarrassing has been the constant harassing of this president by the likes of the above lefty sheep-rabble for 7 years. No wonder some countries question his leadership when the squeaky wheel voices of the professional victim class in the US are the only ones heard.

    Bush has handled this with dignity and grace.

    You losers could learn something from him.

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