The Accidental Tourist

Since the election we've all had our share of smug, self assured Bush supporters telling us to get over it. His lack of qualfications for the office is now trumped by the fact that he has been elected by a majority of the popular vote. They say the point is now moot, the question irrelevant. Well not for me it isn't.

What best exemplifies Bush's lack of qualification? His spotty academic record? His failures in the business world? His lack of accomplishment in a do-nothing job as governor of Texas? His history as an abuser of drugs and alcohol? All of these matter but what I think best exemplifies his complete lack of qualification for the office is his apparent deficiency of interest in the world around him and how the cumulation of events in the US and outside the US affects us today.

Here it is in full bloom.

Mr. Bush never lingers at much of anything, but he really doesn't linger in museums and at historical sites. On Tuesday in Quebec, the president spent only 30 minutes at the National Archives of Canada, where he efficiently gazed at portraits of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 2002, Mr. Bush spent only 30 minutes at the Great Wall of China, which he visited on the way to the airport. In 2003, during a six-day trip to Africa, he spent 15 minutes at the Slave House on Goree Island in Senegal, which is said to have been the holding pen and departure point for as many as a million slaves who were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean.

He spent only 60 minutes at a game park in Botswana, a country he visited for a total of six hours.

Can you imagine 30 minutes at the Great Wall? 15 minutes at the Slave House in Senegal? It is all in the past. You get the feeling that if it predates his presidency it doesn't hold much relevance to him, that he is put out having to think about it.

Consider this moment from the dedication of the Clinton Library.

At the private luncheon afterwards, in a heated tent pitched behind the library, Shimon Peres delivered a heartfelt toast to Clinton's perseverance in pursuing the Middle East peace process. Upon entering the tent, Bush, according to an eyewitness, told an aide: "One gulp and we're out of here." He had informed the Clintons he would stay through the lunch, but by the time Peres arose with wine glass in hand the president was gone.

And what does he do when he finally extricates himself from places and events that he finds no fun?

The president has even less patience with elaborate welcoming ceremonies and official dinners on foreign trips. "He'll usually get on the plane and jokingly say, 'Thank you, Condi, I enjoyed that,' " said a Bush aide, who asked not to be identified because the president's remarks reflected impatience with his job. He was referring to Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser and presidential minder.

Ever the imperious boss, he lets his minders know that it was all too much work. Why do I have to do this, can't we go back to that fancy room where I live and play those computer war simulations? Pleeease Uncle Dick! Can you imagine him stomping his feet? Like the spoiled brat Spaulding from the movie Caddyshack, he's not just demanding but he does things precisely becasue he can get away with them (didn't he tell Woodward something like: that's the thing about being Preznit, nobody questions your decisions). Like Spaulding just when he thinks nobody is looking he probably picks his nose and sneaks in just a little taste.

There you go, a few reasons Bush is a lousy, unqualified president.