"i'm the master of low expectations." (george w. bush - 6/4/03)

at the end of my recent visit to the UK, my sister's father-in-law was kind enough to drive me to the airport. politely pretending not to notice my attempts to hide my tears and sniffles as we drove away from my brother-in-law, sister and precious niece, he made small talk about the weather, that day's upcoming rugby match between england and france, and explained to me why he was taking the route we were on as opposed to taking the expressway. as the tears and sniffling subsided, we began chatting about other things and the conversation eventually turned to politics. we were discussing the front-runners from each party for the next presidential election and both agreed that there really is nowhere to go but up when you're talking about the next president of the US. and then came this comment....

"you know, i think i can safely say that most people here look at the united states and see this highly industrialized country of 300 million people and we wonder how george bush was the best person you could come up with.... twice."

all i could do in response was laugh and assure him that there are many, many americans who feel the exact same way. and while i did find the comment to be humorous (as was intended), it also made me feel a tad embarrassed to be reminded that other countries look at our president and see a bumbling idiot - a fact the american people have resigned ourselves to with annoyance, frustration, and much shaking of our collective heads.

i'll look forward to talking politics again with bruce after the election of a new president. after all, we have nowhere to go but up, right?