Bush Goes to Europe

George arrived in Vienna last night and he's going to spend the next several days meeting with the leaders of the EU. Let's hope that he can keep the smirking to a minimum and save the wise-cracks for the sympathetic and forgiving reporters we have here in the States. His handlers may be able to keep him in front of friendly crowds here at home, but can they hide him from an entire continent of hostility?

Mr. Bush's image is plastered around Vienna on the cover of the Austrian news magazine Profil, under the headline "The Mad World of George Bush." On Tuesday, anticipating Mr. Bush's arrival, an Austrian commentator, Hans Rauscher, offered a brutal assessment of the president in the daily newspaper Der Standard.

"George W. Bush is probably the worst president of the past 100 years," Mr. Rauscher wrote. "The world has to suffer him until 2008."

linkswende.org (photo is my own, from last month in Vienna)