President Bush in Africa

For years, we've been told how much the world hates us. Yes, the world hates America and it's all because of President Bush.

Libs are always saying that Bush squandered the world's post-9/11 goodwill toward us and destroyed our standing in the international community. They decry that the Bush administration's foreign policy has been disastrous, the worst in our history.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama say it, too.

Apparently, these Dems don't include Africa when they refer to the international community.

On his trip to Africa, Bush has been greeted with outpourings of gratitude.

ARUSHA, Tanzania -- President Bush handed out hugs and bed nets in Tanzania's rural north on Monday, saying the United States is part of an international effort to provide enough netting to protect every child under five in the east African nation.

"The suffering caused by malaria is needless and every death caused by malaria is unacceptable," Bush said in an open air pavilion at Meru District Hospital. "It is unacceptable to people in the United States who belive every human life has value, and that the power to save lives comes with the moral obligation to use it."

Bush launched a plan in 2005 to dramatically reduce malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, the worst affected region in the world. More than 80 percent of malaria cases happen here. The disease kills at least 1 million infants and children under five every year. Congress so far has put $425 million toward Bush's $1.2 billion, five-year program, which has helped more than 25 million people.

In Tanzania alone, malaria kills roughly 100,000 people a year. Bush said the tremendous loss will not be tolerated.

"It is unacceptable to people here in Africa, who see their families devastated and their economies crippled," he said. "It is unacceptable to people in the United States who believe every human life has value, and that the power to save lives comes with the moral obligation to use it."

Bush announced that the U.S. and Tanzania, in partnership with the World Bank and the Global Fund, plan to distribute 5.2 million free bed nets in Tanzania in six months. That's enough, he said, to provide a net for every child between ages one and five in Tanzania.

In every part of the hospital, women spontaneously hugged the president, who is popular here for the help his administration is providing to battle disease.

...As Bush's motorcade made the long drive from the airport to the hospital, it passed through several villages where hundreds of locals lined the road. At one point, flowers had been strewn in the street before his car.

This must be terribly painful for the lib media to report.

Bush has been received in Africa as a hero. They've welcomed him and Mrs. Bush with such warmth and appreciation.

They know how committed the President has been to them as they struggle in their battles with malaria, Aids, and poverty.

Wonder what Bush's legacy is?

Part of it is what he did to fight for these forgotten, suffering people. It's more than any other administration has done for Africa.

Hey libs! Care to acknowledge this as something positive accomplished by Bush during his time in office?

The Washington Post couldn't manage to report on Bush's visit to Africa without finding an angle to diss him.

What hacks!

Do you believe this headline?

Pride in Obama Aside, Tanzanians Praise Bush

The Post prominently includes Barack Obama in its story on the President and the First Lady in Africa!

Turns out the folks President Bush is visiting have been following the contest back home almost as much as the Americans have -- thanks to a favorite son, of sorts, in Barack Obama, whose father was born in neighboring Kenya. They watch his speeches on the news, debate his chances with friends and ask visiting Americans about the latest developments.

"Everybody's warm about Obama," said Caroline Kessy, 48, who runs a shop that sells wood carvings in the Mwenge shantytown market here. "Africa would get a good image if one of us, one of our blood, could be one of your leaders."

Ali Gamba, 44, who owns another shop with wooden elephants and giraffes, said he thinks Obama would change the world economy and bring peace to the globe. "We watch him every day through television," Gamba said. "I'm excited."

But Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete understands the difference between a would-be president and the real thing. And so when a reporter asked Kikwete, during a joint news conference with Bush on Sunday, about African enthusiasm for Obama's candidacy, he diplomatically played it down and heaped praise instead on the president who had just given him a five-year, $698 million aid package.

"Of course, people talk with excitement of Obama," Kikwete said. But he added, "For us, the most important thing is, let him be as good friend of Africa as President Bush has been."

As for Bush, he seemed unenthusiastic about being upstaged. "It seemed like there was a lot of excitement for me -- wait a minute!" he said with a laugh. "Maybe you missed it."

Actually, it would be hard to miss it here in Dar es Salaam, where the streets are thronged with people waiting to see the president wherever he goes.

For Bush, who has made fighting AIDS, malaria and poverty in Africa a signature of his presidency, the unalloyed adulation he has encountered since arriving in Africa over the weekend for a six-day tour has been a rare warm bath after years of popular discontent at home.

Instead of focusing on Bush's triumphant visit to Africa and what he has done to better the lives of Africans, the Post makes the story about Obama.

It's crazy!

The Post also takes shots at the President's approval ratings at home when it cites his tremendous popularity in Africa.

...Bush's reception here has been dramatic. Everywhere he goes, his route is lined with thousands of people. Billboards all over town bear his picture with words of thanks. Dancers at various ceremonies wear his face on sarongs.

Bush enjoys popularity in Africa that he could only dream of back home. About 82 percent of people surveyed in Ivory Coast, 72 percent in Kenya and 69 percent in Ghana express confidence that he does the right thing in world affairs, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

By comparison, just 40 percent of Tanzanians expressed confidence in him, according to the polling. But that was still higher than in any Arab, Asian, Latin American or European country surveyed, including longtime U.S. allies such as Britain, France and Germany.

Kikwete left little doubt where he stands. "Different people may have different views about you and your administration and your legacy," he told Bush. "But we in Tanzania, if we are to speak for ourselves and for Africa, we know for sure that you, Mr. President, and your administration, have been good friends of our country and have been good friends of Africa."

This really is sick.

It's such a biased report.

The Washington Post wasn't alone in twisting a report on the Bush administration's achievements in Africa into an attack.

Reuters also chose to dwell on the negatives.

Unpopular at home and in much of the world during the last year of his presidency, George W. Bush is basking in rare adulation on his African tour.

...Although around 2,000 Muslim demonstrators protested against Bush on the eve of his visit, many thousands more cheering, waving people lined his road from the airport on Saturday.

Banners across the route, decorated with Bush's image against a backdrop of Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro, read: "We cherish democracy. Karibu (welcome) to President and Mrs Bush."

Others read: "Thank you for helping fight malaria and HIV." Dancers at the airport and at Kikwete's state house to greet Bush on Sunday, wore skirts and shirts decorated with his face.

Back home, Bush is suffering some of the lowest approval ratings in his seven-year tenure and has been buffeted by criticism of his handling of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ailing economy.

Not surprisingly he is enjoying the different reception in Africa.

This is just bizarre.

Don't these journalists have an ounce of pride in their work? Wouldn't personal integrity in terms of their reporting prevent them from turning their accounts of Bush's trip to Africa into hitjobs?

It's so incredibly small of them.

I doubt that Bush cares.

He pushed for aid for Africa because it was the right thing to do, not to win praise from the rabid lib media.

Bottom line: Bush's program is responsible for saving lives in Africa.

I suspect that's all the reward the President needs.
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More on malaria: Al Gore, Rachel Carson, and an Inconvenient Truth