Every night before he goes to bed, Vladamir Putin must thank God that G.W. Bush, and not Clinton or Gore, is President of the United States at this critical moment in history. Putin has to wonder why the looney left in American and Western Europe still cling to the "discarded lies" of the past even as Russia and other republics and satellites of the former Soviet Union struggle to transform their societies into capitalistic democracies.
And every night before he goes to bed, Jiang Zenim must ask himself where he went wrong. How could the "party in power" in the United States allow G.W. Bush to assume the presidency? If only they had given Clinton/Gore and the DNC a little more "walking around money," maybe that would have enabled them to "buy" a few more votes in Florida. How can he deal now with an American President who can't be bought and is not afraid to use that big stick?