Dana Milbank exercises the bigotry of low expectations

It’s a shame that Hu’s visit sparked all those riots and brick throwings at the Chinese embassy. Wait. I’m reading from the wrong queue card. What were the outrages? Oh yeah, the national anthem was referred to as for the "Republic of China." SCANDAL! But the indignities didn’t stop there. Cheney wore sunglasses. SUNGLASSES! Bush tapped his foot during one of Hu’s answers during the Q & A. And when Hu was trying to crawl off stage, someone tackled him and kicked him in the gut and ripped his jacket off….though on camera it looked like they tugged on his jacket to show him the correct way to leave.

There were more atrocities. The absence of a Chinese flag from the lamp posts. A Falun Gong heckler, which the secret service took three minutes to silence and imprison for life. THREE MINUTES! Vice President Cheney could’ve sobered up and taken off his glasses and confessed to murdering his entourage in that time. Bush knew the gal was a Falun Gong crazy because five years ago she was up to the same heckling tricks - and we all know he scrupuously reads all the papers. Obviously, it was a plot to discredit Hu. When that newsfeed hits Chinese television airwaves, every Chinese subject is going to fetch their torch and will be looking for you know Hu.
Plus, Bush wouldn’t give Hu a dinner, only a lunch. And, to complete the indignities, Bush insisted that Hu wear floppy clown shoes and a rainbow colored wig at the press conference, which clashed with his “Free Tibet” lapel pin. Truly horrible. No wonder the man spent last night crying into his pillow - according to "senior administration officials"!

According to Milbank, this was all terribly costly, as it made Hu too upset to negotiate with later. As a result, Bush couldn’t get Hu to release all his political prisoners, free Tibet, let the KMT absorb the mainland, force N. Korea to give up on nukes, so on and so forth. If only we’d put a Chinese flag on the White House pole and given the man a dinner, we could’ve hade all that stuff! See, according to Milbank’s logic, Hu is too much of a wuss to suffer all those indignities and then turn around and negotiate like a man. By being so darned insensitive, we completely blew an opportunity to bring peace and harmony to the world.

Contrast that with Bush. No leader in the world today has been compared to Hitler more, respected less, called and idiot or a big meany as much, been heckled and shown the correct way off as many stages as him. Does it ever shake him? Does he ever not conduct himself in a professional manner? And if he did, would Milbank blame others and excuse Bush for not being in the mood to negotiate?