Let me be blunt

Mike Allen:

The question was blunt, even impudent. A foreign journalist asked President George W. Bush whether he regretted that "most Europeans consider the United States the biggest threat to global stability" — worse than Iran or North Korea. However debatable the premise, it was based on a Harris poll of 5,000 Europeans that had been featured on the front page of the Financial Times of London the day before Bush set off on his 15th trip to Europe.

"That's absurd," the President shot back, describing it as "an absurd statement." His top aides, sitting in the fourth row of the news conference at the ornate Hofburg Palace in Vienna, responded with visible shock, clearly hoping he would elaborate. He waited until two questions later, when he was asked again about failing "so badly to convince Europeans, to win their heads and hearts and minds." This time, the President was more expansive, and softer spoken. "Look, people didn't agree with my decision on Iraq, and I understand that," he said. "For Europe, September the 11th was a moment; for us, it was a change of thinking. I vowed to the American people I would do everything to defend our people, and will."

The President suddenly sounded as confident as he had in going after war-weary Democrats recently in the Rose Garden. His explanation reflected the unapologetic, even defiant mien he has struck during a 44-hour swing through Europe that began in Vienna on Tuesday night and will end when he flies out of Budapest on Thursday night.

Other leaders at the annual summit between the U.S. and European Union were primed to press him on the handling of detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, but Bush managed to preempt many of their complaints while not committing to any reversals. And he indicated a desire to overcome past fissures over Iraq by declaring, "What's past is past, and what's ahead is a hopeful democracy in the Middle East."

The trip, which provided plenty of opportunities for Bush to look defensive, instead has turned into one of the more successful foreign forays of his Presidency. The lightning schedule kept him from getting sniffly or cranky, as he did on several of his early overseas trips. Mammoth demonstrations never materialized. And that piling-on question about the U.S. image abroad provoked perhaps the most ardent defense of Bush by a European leader since the attack on Iraq in March 2003.

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Blunt is better than "sniffy and cranky." I agree with Allen that his response was terrific. I have been wanting to tell the Euro weenies that for several years. The left wing media in Europe is responsible for this fantasy world where George Bush is the bad guy and Iran and the Norks are the victims. It is not only absurb, it is utter nonsense that anyone who really gave some thought to the matter should have been able to see without the President having to remind them.