President Bush has about 130 days left in his contract as leader of the free world. For much of the summer Bush has been traveling the globe and his behavior resembled a frat boy rather than world leader.
Bush, wrote Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, is the Matthew McConaughey of world leaders, sans flip flops and cargo shorts. During an audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, wrote Carter, Bush yelled "Your eminence, you're looking good!" A few weeks later at the G8 summit in Japan to discuss climate change, Bush departed with a cheery "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter!"
Yes, Americans consume one quarter of the world's oil. Bush's bravado was odd since his citizens were roiled by spiking $4-plus per gallon gas prices. The summit partners stared stonily and didn't get the president's humor. Bush must assure these leaders he is fully engaged and not on a world comedy tour. The global economy is rocky, and it's a dangerous world out there too, aside from Iraq, Afghanistan and al-Qaida.
International volatility was evident at Friday's opening Olympic ceremony, supposedly the moment nations of the world take a collective timeout from hostilities in order to celebrate unity in athletic competition.
Sigh. Hours before the festivities in Beijing, Russian tanks and planes invaded Georgia, the former communist bloc satellite that is now a western-style democracy.
Russia was accused of enabling rebel groups trying to break away from Georgia.
That morning when Georgia's president was talking to CNN about the invasion in progress, he did not welcome Vladimir Putin's Russian advances. Scores of Georgian civilians were reported killed by Russian air and tank assaults.
At the Olympics, Bush and Putin exchanged pleasantries from their stadium seats. Bush that weekend said he condemned the Russian assault on Georgia. Politicos said the Russians could ignore America because the government had little leverage in that region, yet on Tuesday, Russia announced a halt to its invasion.
On Friday, a Bush ally decided against leaving his country to come to China's Olympic party. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf stayed put because opposition critics were trying to impeach him. Musharraf probably concluded that had he left the country briefly, he might have trouble returning home.
Meanwhile, as NBC commentators announced the athletic delegations strolling into the stadium, during Zimbabwe's turn, the announcers noted that President Robert Mugabe tried to attend the games, and even got as far as Hong Kong, but the Chinese government essentially carded the rogue. Any other two weeks, the Chinese probably would overlook a head of state violently stealing a democratic election, but shoot, they could not have such recent bad behavior from southern Africa cast a funk on Olympic festivities.
Buh bye Robert, the Chinese essentially said.
Bush has been spending a lot of time in Beijing like he has time on his hands. He posed with the U.S. beach volleyball babes, watched the high-flying antics of the U.S. basketball team and asked NBC's Bob Costas to hurry up an interview so he could catch the U.S. swimming team heroics.
The Olympic groove is inspiring, yet all the international activity away from Beijing arte reminders that a number of adversaries are behaving badly and may challenge or threaten U.S. interests.
For better or worse, Bush is still on the clock. He must stay alert in order to engage the real and potential threats.
