Consider how the old man would have handled the standoff over the American plane on Hainan Island. He would have conferred with fellow world leaders in London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. We'd have gotten leaked accounts of late-night meetings, of the ongoing vigil in the White House situation room. It would have been the stuff of grand diplomacy, with the president as the nation's Chief Diplomat. Of course, George W. played it just the opposite.
Foreign policy is, after all, the reason they're in office.
He knows, because he learned from his father, that political bread is buttered on the other side. It's far better, he calculates, to save his face for that big tax-cut signing ceremony this August in the Rose Garden. Don't forget the Republican base, especially in the conservative South. George W. never takes his eyes off it. Count the number of days he spends on his Texas ranch compared to the days he spends visiting New York or San Francisco between now and 2004.