BUSH AVOIDING ECONOMIC PROBLEMS IN AMERICA WHILE ANNOYING EUROPEANS WITH HIS SILLY PROPOSALS

Keenly aware of Bush's lame duck status, the leaders of America's European allies, pretty much ignored his bellicose and provocative demands that NATO admit two former Soviet states, Ukraine and Georgia. "Bush failed to win over a consensus of NATO members in a debate at a dinner of NATO leaders, a senior German official said Wednesday night, with at least seven countries lined up against him."

Europeans see Bush as a bumbling imbecile and a strong-willed, undiplomatic cowboy who causes more problems than he solves. To admit Ukraine would be interpretted by the Russians as an unfriendly and even threatening act-- and for countries dependent on Russia for energy supplies this is ground not to be tread on lightly-- or even, Bush-style, heavily.

Germany and France have said they believe that since neither Ukraine nor Georgia is stable enough to enter the program now, a membership plan would be an unnecessary offense to Russia, which firmly opposes the move. In fact, senior diplomats here said, the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, has threatened to cancel his planned first-ever visit to the NATO meeting on Friday if the two former Soviet states enter the program for eventual membership.

No one actually said it, but many were wondering why Bush doesn't put his Harvard MBA energy into doing something about stopping the Bush Recession from turning into the Bush Depression back home.