European leaders must emerge from their “state of denial” and wake up to the fact that they will be dealing with President Bush for the next four years, Tony Blair says today.
In an appeal to America and the countries that opposed the war in Iraq to come together, the Prime Minister tells The Times: “The election has happened. America has spoken. The rest of the world should listen.” He adds: “It is important that America listens to the rest of the world too. But the fact is that President Bush is there for four years. He is there because the American people have chosen to elect him.” Without naming his targets, Mr Blair says:
“Some people are in a sort of state of denial.” He predicts they will soon be in a “more receptive mood”.
Mr Blair spoke to The Times before travelling to Brussels for a European summit, where he expected the first discussions last night to be about the re-election of Mr Bush and an agenda on which they could move forward together. He makes plain that he will take his role as a bridge between the two continents even more seriously than before, saying Britain is “uniquely placed” because of its “immensely strong” alliance with America to mark out the common ground for agreement.
The Middle East peace process, the Iraqi elections, Iran, Afghanistan and even climate change will be the key areas where progress must be made, he says.
And he discloses that in a conversation with Mr Bush last Saturday — three days before the US election — the President left him with the impression that he intended to use the “space and energy” that a second term gave him to develop an agenda of unifying Europe and America.
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(Philip Webster and Peter Riddell in The Times, November 5, 2004)
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This is a test of the tagline system, I repeat this is a test of the tagline system you will soon be returned to your regular programming.
Now that the election is over I need to change my tagline from
"Actually i voted for John Kerry before I voted against him." to something new
Yeah, sure. We'll keep you posted.
Tony Blair, in spite of being a liberal, has been a good friend to us during this whole WOT mess. I saw a small video clip of him the other day. He looked pretty rough, and has added quite a few more gray hairs. He's paid a price for helping to stand up for what's right. Thank God for Blair, the Poles, the Aussies, and the rest. We're not alone.
Well duh. That would be 5:30pm EST. He could get up 7 hours later and it was still only a little past midnight here, it was at that time undetermined whether GWB had won. What did Blair miss besides exit poll agony?