Unlike Clinton, Bush Sees Hanoi in Bit of a Hurry

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/world/asia/19vietnam.html?hp&ex=1163912400&en=ac28a7081c62faa6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

President Bush likes speed golf and speed tourism — this is the man who did the treasures of Red Square in less than 20 minutes — but here in the lake-studded capital of a nation desperately eager to connect with America, he set a record.

Mr. Bush emerged from his hotel for only one nonofficial event, a 15-minute visit to the Joint P.O.W./M.I.A. Accounting Command, which searches for the remains of the 1,800 Americans still listed as missing in the Vietnam War.

There were almost no Vietnamese present, just a series of tables displaying photographs of the group’s painstaking work, and helmets, shoes and replicas of bones recovered by the 425 members of the command. He asked a few questions and then sped off in his motorcade.

It could not have been more different from the visit of another president, Bill Clinton, exactly six years ago this weekend, when he seemed to be everywhere.

And while the difference says much about the personalities of two presidents who both famously avoided serving in the war here, it reveals a lot about how significantly times have changed — and perhaps why America’s “public diplomacy” seems unable to shift into gear.

[RamboLiberal]

1. I just had to add this telling line from Hadley in the story

“If you’d been part of the president’s motorcade as we’ve shuttled back and forth,” he said, reporters would have seen that “the president has been doing a lot of waving and getting a lot of waving and smiles.”

That's our arrogant Lord PissyPants!

[rpannier]

2. I support this speed diplomacy by scrub

The more time he spends in public the more he gets to speak. This allows him to say more and more stupid things.

[acmejack]

3. He REALLY WAS afraid to go there in the sixties...

I mean even more than everybody else.