Priorities

Elizabeth Bumiller writes in the New York Times:

There were no questions about the Dubai ports deal. There was little talk of Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a fellow quail hunter. The words "Iraq" and "Katrina" hardly came up at all.

Through five days and three countries last week, George W. Bush got a little of what beleaguered American presidents always look for on foreign trips: a chance to set aside problems at home.

True, the trip had troubles of its own. Anti-Bush riots led by Islamists exploded from Hyderabad north to Kashmir, Islamabad was in lockdown because of the risks of bringing the president into Osama bin Laden's backyard, and an American diplomat died in a suicide bombing in Karachi. But compared with Mr. Bush's most recent trips to South America and Asia — one dominated by demonstrations led by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and the other by problems in Iraq — the president's visit to the subcontinent was a relief for him.

To Bush, it's always vacation time. Nothing perturbs hims. An important visit with strategic allies is "a chance to set aside problems at home." We wouldn't want something as minor as, say, the death of an American diplomat to perturb him, to disturb the Boy King's rest, now, would we?

Then again, the death of 2300 American servicemen and more than 100,000 Iraqis hasn't gotten in the way of his well-needed rest or his work-out schedule, either. Or the loss of a major American city. Or the worry that bird flu could kill millions.

No. He's toned, he's rich, and he's safe. The rest of us, the 99.99% who aren't the "haves and the have-mores" don't matter. As long as the oil is being pumped and the money keeps rolling in, all is well in Bushworld.