Bush seeks to rehabilitate himself in his last year in office

[kentuck]

Of course, it's under the guise of rebuilding "the U.S.'s international standing and create a foreign-policy legacy beyond Iraq." I'm sure that will work out just fine. Maybe he will promise to give them everything that is left in the US Treasury?? In the end, it's about his own legacy, not our country's "foreign policy legacy".
============================

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=atro6SH1DtRI

<snip>
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's diplomatic passport will acquire a slew of new country stamps during his final year in office as he tries to rebuild the U.S.'s international standing and create a foreign-policy legacy beyond Iraq.

The president plans trips to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, which would make 2008 his busiest year abroad. While his major domestic initiatives may get stalled by a Democratic majority in Congress and the gridlock caused by election-year politics, he still has an opportunity to exert his influence overseas.

``When it comes to foreign policy, he's not a lame duck; he can do a lot,'' said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served as director of policy planning at the State Department until June 2003.

Bush, 61, came into the White House promising a humble foreign policy and eschewing nation-building and foreign entanglements. That changed after the Sept. 11 attacks, when he adopted a style supporters hail as visionary and critics call cowboy diplomacy.

While the president will strive to strengthen alliances, it won't come at the expense of continuing to prosecute the war on terror, said Jim Jeffrey, the deputy White House national security adviser.

[Hydra]

1. So Fratboy is going on a road trip?

I hope he doesn't try to grope too many of the foreign reps...actually, I hope he does, and that one of them bites him

:evilgrin:

[NanceGreggs]

2. If Bush really wanted to rehabilitate the image of the US ...

... he would publicly admit to his crimes, his failures, and his incompetence, and then resign.

Just a serving suggestion ...

[VP505]

3. Crap, all he wants to do

is travel on the taxpayers dime as head of state while he still can, after he leaves office I doubt the reception he would receive from most of the world would be very friendly. His 7 years in office was used to destroy 50 previous years of diplomacy, the damage is done and no amount of anything * does now will reverse that.

[Vincardog]

4. Bush seeks to rehabilitate himself BULLSHIT. He seeks to fuck up the rest of the world so much we

can never recover. Dim Son truly wants to trigger WW3 and trick bjesus into returning.

[CrispyQ]

5. ...

``When it comes to foreign policy, he's not a lame duck; he can do a lot,'' said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations

Yeah, a lot of damage!

[KharmaTrain]

6. Bribing Future Refuges

It'll be interesting who will welcome a booshie visit, who will tolerate one and who will downright shun it. Note that he's avoiding Europe where he'd be heckled and a major disruption in every European capital. He'll be "bearing gifts" to those who put up with his photo ops and take the billions in aid and other "loans" that booshie will use to gain "acceptance". This is the only game this goon knows.

Another note is this keeps the manchild out of the country and away from the '08 elections...something the Repugnicans surely want to see happen.

[Ilsa]

7. So he's going to be satisfied with only one "good " year out of eight?

12.5%. Yeah, he's the master of low expectations.

[FlyingSquirrel]

8. Repug Take on Bush Years:

"Really everything bad that happened from 2001-2008 was a result of Clinton's failed policies and disastrous presidency. There wasn't much Bush could do but he did manage to hold things somewhat steady and start turning things around."

Several years after Dem gets elected in 2008:

"Everything good that's happened in the last several years was brought about by the Bush presidency. It's just now coming to fruition. Clinton/Obama/Edwards/Biden deserves no credit whatsoever. They'll leave a big mess for us to clean up when we get the WH back in 2012, and we'll once again get blamed for it."

[liberalla]

10. So true!

They're so predictable!
:toast:

[Cha]

9. It's all corporatemediawhore bullshit.

and bushit. hillary better not enable him anymore.

[rucky]

11. He'll be visiting realtors in countries that don't extradite. n/t