Bush plans diplomatic disaster tour

By Libby Spencer

This has got to be the most idiotic idea ever to emanate from the White House. I suspect Bush may have thought it up himself.

President George W. Bush's diplomatic passport will acquire a slew of new country stamps during his final year in office as he tries to rebuild the U.S.'s international standing and create a foreign-policy legacy beyond Iraq.

The president plans trips to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, which would make 2008 his busiest year abroad. While his major domestic initiatives may get stalled by a Democratic majority in Congress and the gridlock caused by election-year politics, he still has an opportunity to exert his influence overseas.

``When it comes to foreign policy, he's not a lame duck; he can do a lot,'' said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served as director of policy planning at the State Department until June 2003.

Forget about lame duck. The man is just a plain lamebrain. I can't think of anything worse than our preznit-wit plying his dis-plomacy from one end of the globe to the other. In seven years he hasn't managed to make it through a single state visit without commiting a major social gaffe. Face it, he's a arrogant bastard and nobody likes him. They only entertain him because they have to. I can't think of a better way for him ruin our international relations and leave the White House as an worldwide laughingstock.

Of course, on the bright side, everyone knows he's theorectically going to leave office in a year. After eight years of dealing with our hapless Blunderer-in-Chief, any new president is going to be seen as an improvement.

(Cross-posted at The Impolitic.)