Kookaburra has an interesting wrap-up of President Bush’s visit to Australia posted on his site. While it’s certainly no surprise, apparently Bush’s visit was heavily stage managed to make sure he got the most possible accolades, and the fewest possible questions…
Every aspect of the visit was stage managed to ensure that John Howard controlled it for maximum political gain. Simon Crean managed a single 20 minute audience with George Bush, despite more Australian’s voting for his party than John Howard’s in the last election. (Howard is in government as the leader of a coalition between his Liberal Party and the National Party).
Alan Ramsay (of SMH) in commenting on the exclusion of Crean, “…the Opposition Leader was left out in mugsville. He was not included in the welcome at Canberra airport, in the farewell, in the ceremony at the War Memorial, or in the barbecue at the Lodge, the only social occasion Bush would agree to. Even the press gallery was represented at the lunch by its president, Malcolm Farr of The Daily Telegraph. But not the Leader of the Australian Opposition. If nothing else, you’d have thought protocol if not manners might have extended an invitation to Crean.”
Lord knows we can’t have our President actually have to face questions about what he’s doing to the world — he might slip up and accidentally tell the truth.
Actually I am now less critical of Bush’s approach (I don’t agree with his policy thrust) but much more critical of the Australian Prime Minister. Where Bush is polished and is open to (some) questioning, Howard (the Australian PM) is not at all polished and it is very obvious when he is trying to manipulate things. Perhaps Bush is less of a control freak and has more capable fixers?
The point I was making was that the Bush visit was stage managed by the Australian PM to deliver John Howard maximum political points without allowing any negative aspects (such as questions about Iraq) to creep into the frame. Bush was more than happy to play along. After all politics now seems to be more about appearances than subtance. The average mug (aka ‘joe’) seems to appreciate the sound bite. As Walter Cronkite has pointed out – (paraphrasing) “These days the news is all about telling you what you want to hear. In my time the news was about telling you what you needed to know.”
Would Bush know truth if he tripped over it?