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Again, a Lunchtime Glimpse of Bush in Chat Mode
It would not be a G-8 without a microphone mishap.
When leaders of the world’s richest nations, the so-called Group of 8, gathered two years ago in St. Petersburg, Russia, President Bush was caught using some blunt, colorful language as he munched a roll during lunch. For four enlightening minutes, the world was treated to an unvarnished view of George W. Bush as he expounded on everything from his penchant for Diet Coke to his long-winded fellow leaders. (“I’m not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them.”)
At this week’s gathering on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the lunchtime microphones were on again. The life-of-the-party president, mingling before the meal, chatted animatedly about his parents’ health, his birthday and the corruption charges facing one of his best buddies in Europe, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy.
“Amigo! Amigo!” Mr. Bush called out cheerily in Spanish when he spotted the Italian prime minister. “How you doing, Silvio? Good to see you!” Later, the president wondered about his former Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin. “Did Putin come to see you since I saw you?” he asked Mr. Berlusconi. (He had not.)
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany walked in, clutching a newspaper featuring a photograph of the first President Bush during a recent trip to Berlin. “His father,” she noted to the other leaders, while President Bush looked concerned. The elder Bush, 84, has been slowing down since his hip replacement surgery last year.
“How did he feel? How did he look? Can he walk O.K.?” the president asked.
“The walking is difficult for him,” Mrs. Merkel replied.
“Yeah, I’m worried about him,” Mr. Bush said.
The talk turned to the president’s mother, who had knee replacement surgery last month. “Two knee operations, two knees at the same time,” the president said, “because she didn’t want to rehab but once.”
Holding court in the assembled group, Mr. Bush, who turned 62 here on Sunday, remarked that the steep hills of Hokkaido proved a biking challenge. “So I got on my bicycle this morning,” he said, “and got to the bottom of the hill and realized it was really tough to get up. When you’re older, as you know. ... ”
Someone asked the president about his birthday; he celebrated on the Fourth of July. “Big party at the White House, and they had fireworks,” he said. “My little girls were there.”
Over in the corner, Mr. Bush spied Robert B. Zoellick, the head of the World Bank. The president’s voice boomed, “Everybody know Zoellick, the World Bank man?”
Then it was back to Mr. Berlusconi. On Tuesday, the day after the lunch, an embarrassed Bush White House issued a formal apology to the Italian prime minister for having distributed a biography to reporters that noted Mr. Berlusconi’s “convictions on a number of corruption charges” (all overturned) and used the word “suave” to describe him. The legal issues came up at the lunch, too.
“I read the courts are after you again,” Mr. Bush told Mr. Berlusconi. “It’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it. Constantly after you.”
Funny, but at the next day’s lunch, the microphones were cut off.
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Bush summons Canadian leader with a "Yo Harper!"
U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday kept up his tradition of informal relations with fellow world leaders by summoning Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper with a brusque "Yo Harper!"
Click to viewBush and Harper, a rather stiff and shy figure, are in northern Japan for a summit of leaders of the Group of Eight major industrialised countries. Television footage of a G8 lunch with African leaders showed Bush talking to Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua and saying "Yo Harper! The president of Nigeria."
At a G8 summit in 2006, Bush landed ally Tony Blair in some trouble by calling out "Yo Blair!" Critics said the greeting showed what they described as the unequal nature of Bush's relationship with Blair, then the British prime minister.
And at the same summit, Bush shocked German chancellor Angela Merkel by briefly massaging her back as he walked behind her chair.
Harper's ties with Bush are sensitive, since critics of Canada's right-wing Conservative government regularly accuse it of taking orders from Washington. It was not the first time that Bush has surprised Harper in public. In July 2006, after the two men met at the White House for the first time, Bush publicly called the Canadian "Steve". Analysts said at the time this might actually help Harper dispel questions about the closeness of his relationship with Bush, since no one who even slightly knew the somewhat wooden Canadian leader would ever think of him as "Steve".
Bush has since referred to Harper in public as "Stephen". Asked for a reaction to the "Yo Harper!" comment, Harper's spokeswoman said she had not been at the lunch.
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