[TomGuy]

The thing at issue is absolutely no one told the White House about the change to requiring passports; Bush was completely blindsided and said he found out about it on the radio

I don't buy that at all.

But, say it is true, then it just exemplifies how out of touch with mainstream America Bush and Co really are. That is even worse.

[Strategerist]

Mainstream America didn't decide to require passports; Homeland Security did.

So do you want some sort of weenie wonk like Gore who is constantly micromanaging regulations of every department in office?

What happened is that this wasn't perceived as that significant by HS and the decision was made at a department level and the WH wasn't notified and nobody said "Hey, Prez, what do you think of this?" at a cabinet meeting.

[doc30]

But, say it is true, then it just exemplifies how out of touch with mainstream America Bush and Co really are.

Since Bush is from Texas, he is more in tune with US-Mexican relationships. I honestly believe when Bush was elected that he did not have a strong grasp on U.S.-Canadian relations (trade and border) and the poltitical gaffes of the Canadian government didn't help.

[international american]

Good point.