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Has Bush Become Too Isolated and Controversial To Even Be A Benefit To His Supporters
Along with your knee jerk reaction....there goes that bush hater, "host" again, starting another anti Bush thread......consider the possibility that it might not be hate that motivates me....and apparently a lot of other people.....maybe not all to protest this president's policies and actions, but to unceasingly call attention to the impact on U.S. foreign relations and on Americans relationships with each other as a result of Bush serving as president.
Can he still be an effective president, being this isolated ?
Given the cost and the impact on the places that he visits, is there a
signifigant benfit vs. risk (his safety, chances of more positive than negative reaction by local populace and their media) of future Bush travel to foreign population centers ?
Do you think that the White House believed that it would be allowed to
hold a town hall meeting with Bush and members of a diverse German public,
on it's terms, as it routinely does here in the U.S. ? Is this a sign that the
president's advisors and the state department are not accurately assessing
public and press awareness/opinions of the Bush town hall meetings format.
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<a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/02/23/news/scene.html">http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/02/23/news/scene.html</a>
News Analysis: Bush sealed off from Germans in Mainz
By Richard Bernstein The New York Times
Thursday, February 24, 2005
<center><center><img src="http://me.to/mainz.jpg">
Isolation is metaphor for strained ties
MAINZ, Germany The main event of President Bush's visit here was a speech to an enthusiastically applauding audience of about 3,500 German citizens, gathered in a flag-bedraped hall in this town on the Rhine, thrilling to his declaration that Germany and America are more than "firm allies and friends," they are "partners in leadership."
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And then, after the speech, Bush and the German chancellor took a boat trip on the river, just to enjoy each others' company.
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That was 16 years ago, when George Herbert Walker Bush was president, Helmut Kohl the German chancellor, and Germany and the United States were united in the great cause of winning, or at least surviving, the cold war.
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The current president, George W. Bush, who made a seven-hour stopover here Wednesday, had a very different sort of trip to Mainz. It was a very successful one, according to German and American officials; it helped a great deal to repair German-American relations damaged over the war in Iraq.
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But there was something about the very physical setting that suggested how different and less automatically warm German-American relations remain, despite Bush's strenuous effort to improve them. Most conspicuously was the almost total lack of any contact between ordinary Germans and an American president visiting what could almost have been a stage setting, a German town with buildings but no people, a depopulated place, its shops and restaurants closed, and only police in green uniforms visible on the streets.
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Of course, in the post-9/11 world, it is no longer possible for visiting American presidents to stand before throngs of German citizens, as John Kennedy did in 1963 when he made his famous "I am a Berliner" speech, or as Ronald Reagan did in 1987 when he declared, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
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But Bush was so sealed off from Germans other than Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the two German journalists able to ask questions at a joint press conference that even a town meeting-type encounter with Mainz residents was scrubbed, out of the worry that the mood would be hostile. A meeting with a group of carefully screened Young Leaders was put in its place.
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So the Bush-Schröder summit meeting went well, and both sides in this critical trans-Atlantic relationship were determined that it would go well. But the almost total isolation of Bush from Germans seemed a metaphor for how far apart Germans and Americans have drifted in the past couple of years, how wide the gap is.
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"I think it was not only fine, but excellent," Karsten Voigt, a senior German Foreign Ministry official, said after Bush's meeting with Schröder. "Both sides obviously want to symbolize, by language, by rhetoric and by body language that German-American relations are good. When politicians do that, it's more than symbolic; it's also substance, because it gives a signal to public opinion that this is the way they want it to be in the future."
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"I'm not saying that all the differences have been solved," Voigt said. "But the dialogue is no longer about whether a policy is right or wrong; it is now about developing the right strategy to deal with problems."
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But what of the eerie depopulation of Mainz, and the cancellation of the town meeting? Voigt said that, aside from the post 9/11 security aspect to it, the absence of any connection between Bush and ordinary Germans illustrates what he called the skepticism toward Bush felt by a majority of Germans.
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"It's simply a fact that the German government is moving in this direction," Voigt said, meaning toward warmer ties with the United States, "but that German population is skeptical."
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To be sure, one of the purposes of Bush's visit was to erase the bad memories of those days two years ago when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called Europe "irrelevant," and Bush and Schröder were essentially not on speaking terms.
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He may have succeeded; certainly, in calling Schröder "Gerhard" at their joint press conference and in thanking Germany, France and Britain for "taking the lead" on Iran - an initiative toward which the Bush White House was initially openly suspicious - Bush has altered the rhetoric and perhaps the mood.
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It may in this sense be unfair to compare Mainz 2005 with other, showier American presidential visits to Germany, from Kennedy's in 1963 to Bill Clinton's memorable stroll through the Brandenburg Gate, marking the withdrawal of American troops from a reunified Berlin. Those were times when Germany lay exactly across history's main fault line, and, quite simply, it does not any more.
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<a href="http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,343281,00.html">http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,343281,00.html</a>
February 23, 2005
BUSH IN GERMANY
With a Hush and a Whisper, Bush Drops Town Hall Meeting with Germans
During his trip to Germany on Wednesday, the main highlight of George W. Bush's trip was meant to be a "town hall"-style meeting with average Germans. But with the German government unwilling to permit a scripted event with questions approved in advance, the White House has quietly put the event on ice. Was Bush afraid the event might focus on prickly questions about Iraq and Iran rather than the rosy future he's been touting in Europe this week?
AP
US President George W. Bush arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday morning. He won't be meeting with the people here, but he will be meeting with a handpicked bunch of Germany's future business and political leaders.
The much-touted American-style "town hall" meeting the White House has been planning with "normal Germans" of everyday walks of life will be missing during his visit to the Rhine River hamlet of Mainz this afternoon. A few weeks ago, the Bush administration had declared that the chat -- which could have brought together tradesmen, butchers, bank employees, students and all other types to discuss trans-Atlantic relations -- would be the cornerstone of President George W. Bush's brief trip to Germany.
State Department diplomats said the meeting would help the president get in touch with the people who he most needs to convince of his policies. Bush's invasion of Iraq and his diplomatic handling of the nuclear dispute with Iran has drawn widespread concern and criticism among the German public. And during a press conference two weeks ago, Bush said Washington is still terribly misunderstood in Europe. All the more reason, it would seem, for him to be pleased about talking to people here.
But on Wednesday, that town hall meeting will be nowhere on the agenda -- it's been cancelled. Neither the White House nor the German Foreign Ministry has offered any official explanation, but Foreign Ministry sources say the town hall meeting has been nixed for scheduling reasons -- a typical development for a visit like this with many ideas but very little time. That, at least, is the diplomats' line. Behind the scenes, there appears to be another explanation: the White House got cold feet. Bush's strategists felt an uncontrolled encounter with the German public would be too unpredictable.
To avoid that messy scenario, the White House requested that rules similar to those applied during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit two weeks ago also be used in Mainz. Before meeting with students at Paris's Institute of Political Sciences, which preens the country's elite youth for future roles in government, Rice's staff insisted on screening and approving any questions to be asked by students. One question rejected was that of Benjamin Barnier, the 24-year-old son of France's foreign minister, who wanted to ask: "George Bush is not particularly well perceived in the world, particularly in the Middle East. Can you do something to change that?" Instead, the only question of Barnier's that got approval was the question of whether Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority might create a theocratic government based on the Iranian model?
The Germans, though, insisted that a free forum should be exactly that. Wolfgang Ischinger, Germany's Ambassador to the United States, explained to the New York Times last week: "We told them, don't get upset with us if they ask angry questions."
In the end, the town hall meeting was never officially dropped from the agenda of the trip -- instead it was dealt with in polished diplomatic style -- both sides just stopped talking about it.
As an ersatz for the town hall meeting on Wednesday, Bush will now meet with a well-heeled group of so-called "young leaders." Close to 20 participants will participate in the exclusive round to be held in the opulent Mozart Hall of a former royal palace in Mainz, giving them the opportunity for a close encounter with the president. The chat is being held under the slogan: "A new chapter for trans-Atlantic relations." The aim of the meeting is to give these "young leaders" a totally different impression of George W. Bush. In order to guarantee an open exchange, the round has been closed to journalists -- ensuring that any embarrassments will be confined to a small group.
The guest list for the Wednesday afternoon gathering has been handpicked by several US organizations with offices in Germany. In recent days, the Aspen Institute and the German Marshall Fund have sent lists of possible guests to the German Foreign Ministry. The requirement was that all of the nominees had to be in their twenties or thirties and they must already have been in a leadership position at a young age. In other words: there won't be any butchers or handymen on the elite guest list, but rather young co-workers from blue chip companies like automaker DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Bank or the consultancy McKinsey. The fact that two American organizations are the ones managing the guest list suggests that the chat won't be overly critical of Bush.
One participant in the Bush round is 31-year-old Katrin Heuel of Berlin, an employee of the conservative Aspen Institute. Just a few days ago, she received an invitation from the Protocol Office of the German Foreign Ministry. She's a bit nervous about the encounter -- after all, Bush isn't someone she's likely to encounter in her daily life in Berlin. She says she hasn't heard anything about questions being scrutinized in advance or of any kind of script for the event. "I will ask very open questions about Iran, North Korea and Russia," she said, adding that she's excited to see how the president will react to the young people's questions.
Foreign Ministry sources said Berlin wasn't planning any briefing on the course of the chat prior to the event. And it's unknown whether the American staff will make any suggestions to the young leaders. Then again, the day's issue -- a new chapter for trans-Atlantic relations, seems to ensure that things won't get out of hand -- after all, this event is supposed to focus on the future and not dwell on prickly questions about the past.
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<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1497764,00.html">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1497764,00.html</a>America
February 24, 2005
Germans believe debt of gratitude has been settled
By Roger Boyes
THOUSANDS of demonstrators defied one of the biggest security operations in modern Germany yesterday to march in Mainz in protest at American policies.
Massed police units who had made a virtual ghost town out of the city — blocking air, river and rail traffic — corralled the demonstrators in front of the town hall.
Despite concern that the No Welcome To Bush rally could explode into violence after nightfall, the police allowed the protesters to march past the railway station and around the fringes of the city. An anti- terrorist unit overpowered some protesters as they tried to plant a banner declaring “Go Home Mr President!” on the roof of the station.
Police reported some scuffles, but by the time that President Bush had left Mainz on his way to Bratislava, there had been no big confrontation.
About 10,000 demonstrators came from across Germany, by train and by coach, and were determined to show their opposition to America’s intervention in Iraq and to US policy on the environment.
At least three police barricades always separated the American leader from his critics. As they edged closer to the security zone in the early evening, the President was already miles away in Wiesbaden addressing US troops.
Opinion polls published yesterday suggested that the demonstrators spoke for a large number of Germans. According to one survey, Germans trust President Putin of Russia more than they do Mr Bush.
Certainly, there was no mistaking yesterday the personal animosity towards Mr Bush. “This is about the man and his policies,” Andreas Atzl, 22, a sociology student and one of the organisers of the rally, said. “We are not anti-American. After all, many Americans are against Bush, too.”
Germans have a peculiarly emotional relationship with the leaders of the world’s superpowers. They loved John F. Kennedy, above all because of his commitment to West Berlin; and they loved Mikhail Gorbachev. At first they hated Ronald Reagan for his Star Wars weapons programme and his determination to station cruise missiles in West Germany, but they even learnt to love him (“Tear down this Wall, Mr Gorbachev”).
Yet there seems to be little chance of Germans rethinking their opposition to Mr Bush: there has been a fundamental change in German attitudes to the United States.
“Never in the history of the United States was anti-Americanism so broadly spread and so deeply anchored as today,” Mariam Lau, one of Germany’s shrewdest commentators, said.
The anti-Vietnam protests in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s were loud and influential, but nonetheless marginal. “A majority of Germans in the late 1960s saw themselves clearly on the side of the Americans,” Frau Lau said. “Today 70 per cent of 30 to 44-year-olds in Germany say they have no debt of gratitude to the US.”
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16.02.2005 <a href="http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1491765,00.html">http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1491765,00.html</a>
Mainz to Lock Down for Bush Visit
Mainz will basically shut down on Feb. 23
Tight security measures are being put into place for George W. Bush's stop in the city of Mainz next week during his European tour. Highways will be sealed off, schools closed, and river and air traffic suspended.
The US president's visit to Germany is meant to help patch up his relationship between Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, which was strained to the breaking point over the Iraq war. But the one-day stopover likely won't do much for residents of the Mainz region, since much of their city will be sealed off on Feb. 23, the day of Bush's visit.
Portions of four highways will be closed from Frankfurt International Airport, where Bush arrives, past the city of Mainz, where he is meeting with the German leader in the city's Kurfürstliches Schloss (photo), a castle along the Rhine River. Portions of the Rhine, Europe's busiest waterway, as well as the nearby Main River will be closed throughout the day.
Air space in a 60 kilometer (37 mile) radius around Mainz will be closed for all non-commercial aircraft, according to police. Several area schools will be shuttered.
"We have had Clinton, Gorbachev, the pope, Reagan and Chirac in Mainz. But this visit is the biggest challenge we've ever had," Wolfgang Lembach, an official in the region government, told Reuters.
Less than a hearty welcome
Bush remains very unpopular in Germany, despite recent efforts by Washington to get relations back on track and put differences over the Iraq war behind them. Police say they expect between 5,000 and 6,000 demonstrators on Wednesday to attend at least six protests against Bush's foreign policy.
Bush will likely not hear their message directly; a "red zone" has been set up in Mainz where only authorized people will be allowed.
German officials said they believed that Bush would visit American troops at nearby bases in Wiesbaden, but did not have specific information.
Plans for a short walk through Mainz's historic city center appear to have been cancelled, although Laura Bush might visit the city's Gutenberg Museum.
Initial plans for a "town hall" style meeting between the president and local students, businessmen and Americans in the area have also been scrapped, out of fears that such a public forum could backfire.
Like father, unlike son
Bush's itinerary in Germany stands in sharp contrast to a visit his father made to Chancellor Helmut Kohl in May 1989, when the elder Bush took a boat ride down the Rhine with the then-German leader and addressed more than 3,000 Germans and Americans in a speech, during which he was warmly received.
"The relationship between the US and the Federal Republic of Germany has never been better," George H.W. Bush said at the time.
Today, that relationship has been turned on its head and the bond between the two allies is probably more strained than at any time since World War II. In a BBC survey, 77 percent of Germans said they believed Bush's re-election had made the world more dangerous.
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