Setting New Records
No, not jobs lost since Hoover:
Holed up in remote and romantic Dromoland Castle Hotel outside Shannon, the visiting president was defended by the largest security operation in Irish history. (Quite a distinction in a country that has faced decades of domestic terrorism.) Half the 500 members of the presidential entourage were U.S. Secret Service agents, armed with high-powered weapons, armor-piercing munitions and bombproof cars. All this security for only a couple of hours of actual meetings with EU leaders.
And this is the man who just yesterday, on that contentious interview, insisted repeatedly that the world is a safer place.
A big of cognitive dissonance, that.
Oh, and by the way, Bush did emerge from hiding behind the largest security operation in the history of Ireland to proclaim that all is well:
President Bush asserted Saturday that the bitterness over Iraq among European allies was "over" and that NATO had a responsibility to do more to help the fledgling government that will assume limited authority in Baghdad on Wednesday.
"I think the bitter differences of the war are over," Bush said at a news conference after a three-hour summit between the United States and the 25-member European Union.