Gary Poster, with essential assists from Galyn Norwood, Phiroon Phihakendr, Jose Quijada, Pavandeep Kalra. So wooden a leader is often in danger of being upstaged by his own podium.
Appearances can be misleading.
When Senator Dianne Feinstein was mayor of San Francisco, she gave a dinner at her home for Jiang, then mayor of sister city Shanghai. When Richard Nixon visited Beijing in 1989, Jiang interrupted their meeting to leap to his feet and recite Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in English and from memory. In the Philippines last year at a soiree on the presidential yacht, Jiang danced the cha-cha and sang a duet of Love Me Tender with President Fidel Ramos. It certainly would surprise Americans to learn that China's boss, who arrives for his summit with Clinton next week, has a human face. Jiang's visit is raising hopes of a reconciliation between the two geopolitical giants that will end eight years of official frostiness precipitated by China's 1989 bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.