Presidentin’ For Dummies

by digby

Q Well, Mr. President, you’ve known Mr. Prodi for a long time, and you’ve known Mr. Berlusconi — you’ve known both of them. And how would you assess the personal relationship that you had with Mr. Prodi and with Mr. Berlusconi? Is there a difference how comfortable would you feel with one or the other?

THE PRESIDENT: I feel very comfortable with both. The first thing that’s important is I feel comfortable with the people of Italy. We’ve got very close ties.

And let me just take a step back. What’s interesting about our country is that we’ve got — we’ve had close ties with a lot of countries. My ranch was settled by Germans.

Q Really?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. There’s a huge number of Italian Americans. A lot of Russian Americans. You know, Norm Mineta in my Cabinet is a Japanese American. In other words, so when you talk about relations with an American President, you’ve got to understand that there’s a — at least I have, I know my predecessors have, connections, close connections with people who have fond — either fond memories and/or great pride in their motherland.

Who knew?

How embarrassing it must be these days to be John Podhoretz, who wrote this in his hilariously ill-timed tome, Bush Country, How Dubya Became A Great President While Driving Liberals Insane:

The consistent inability of Democrats and liberals to pay proper respect to their adversaries has surely done more damage to them than to their adversaries. Their misunderestimation will continue to cost them as long as they persist in their comforting delusion that the whip-smart George W. Bush is an idiot.

And, by the way, Norm Mineta’s resignation was official last week.

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