Bush with Blair: "... akin to watching his own funeral."

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Just the Two of Us
By Dana Milbank
Friday, May 18, 2007; Page A02


May 17, 2007: Blair brings his farewell tour to the Rose Garden. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)

For President Bush, the sensation must have been akin to watching his own funeral.

Bush's closest ally, Tony Blair, was on his final visit to the White House before the British prime minister, now deeply unpopular, leaves office. The first British questioner got right to the point about Blair's undoing, asking Bush: "Do you think you're partly to blame?"

"Could be," Bush replied, breezily.

A few years ago, both men were brash and highflying leaders. But in recent days, polls on both sides of the Atlantic have given Bush and Blair matching scores: the support of only 28 percent of their people. Just as the failures in Iraq have weighed down the Bush presidency, so did Blair's unstinting support of Bush and the Iraq war cause his own political demise, after a decade in power....

***

From the British perspective, Blair has been Bush's "poodle," eagerly following his master into Iraq but getting nothing in return on issues including global warming and missile defense. Bush didn't help matters at yesterday's joint news conference by almost immediately referring to Blair as "dogged."

Whatever his role in Blair's woes, the president seemed genuinely disturbed that two British reporters asked why Blair shouldn't leave office sooner than the 40 days he has pledged to remain. "You know, it's interesting," Bush said to a BBC questioner, "like trying to do a tap dance on his political grave, aren't you?"

Only a man with one foot in the political grave would know how that feels....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051702139.html?hpid=topnews

[Johonny]

1. You have to feel bad for the guy

He got it totally wrong. He stood by Bush instead of the American people. Bush is extremely unpopular in this country. His war is just as unpopular. Yet he stood by Bush and his war to the end. Sad.

[rusty_parts2001]

2. Leave it to the British press

to ask the questions the American corporate stenographers can't or won't.

[Spazito]

3. Interesting description, very visual, here....

"It was a grayer Blair and a silver-maned Bush who walked from the Oval Office yesterday. Even the Rose Garden appeared uncharacteristically worn: Paint was chipping and peeling above the colonnade, and a couple of the shrubs had turned brown. The normal protocol was lacking. Several American reporters wore sunglasses -- a no-no in Bush world. The front row of British reporters didn't even rise with the crowd when the two leaders approached."

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Milbank did a good job. I wished I could have included that passage in the OP. nt