Bush and Blair part after trip of few wins

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=407456§ion=news

LONDON (Reuters) - Good friends George W. Bush and Tony Blair could be forgiven for heaving a sigh of relief at the end of a state visit hijacked by carnage in the Middle East.

Bush certainly won't like his holiday snaps from London, where baying protesters toppled his effigy in the hope he goes the same way as Saddam Hussein.

Blair will not relish coming away empty-handed from a visit he had hoped would demonstrate the extent of his influence in Washington.

And both were clearly shaken by the savagery of the Istanbul bombings, almost certainly timed to coincide with the visit.

"If Bush and Blair hoped to celebrate -- what was there to celebrate? Nothing. Despite the government in Afghanistan being got rid of and the Iraq regime being toppled, things are as bad as they ever were," said John Curtice, politics professor at Strathclyde University.

The American perspective was no rosier.

"It's a...serious time for them that the niceness of the state visit doesn't really mask," said Jeff McAllister, London bureau chief of Time Magazine. "I would have thought Bush would have done more for Blair on a visit like this."

But gifts were few and far between.

<snip>

Bush hasn't had a "win" in any of his overseas trips to date. He is certainly no John Kennedy.

[Holly]

1. What a farce it was.

"Bush hasn't had a "win" in any of his overseas trips to date. He is certainly no John Kennedy."

LOL, the understatement of the century. Empty-handed, massive protests and terror in Turkey. Parliament is going to eat Blair alive during question period. Any predictions on when he'll need to spend more time with the family.
:eyes:

[kskiska]

4. His African trip

was a disaster, too.

[xray s]

2. But he did get Jack Straw to blame Clinton for 9/11

Thereby officially launching the 2004 Republican campaign to keep the BFEE in control...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1827-2003Nov20_2.html

Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, responded earlier Thursday to critics who have questioned the effectiveness of the war in Iraq, saying he believed it had diminished the threat of terrorism. He also was critical of Bush's predecessor. "What people have got to remember is that September 11th happened in 2001 and not in 2003," Straw said. "It was planned under the presidency of Bill Clinton."

[Holly]

3. Jeez

Tony and co. don't show much loyalty do they..George better watch his back....I'm "shocked and awed".

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. Straw knows where his supper is coming from... Money has no borders.