Placating the Bush-Haters (a Little)

LONDON -- With a few self-mocking phrases and an eloquence that disarmed some critics, President Bush signaled this week that he gets it: He understands how unpopular he is in Europe and he knows that he must explain himself and his policies to Europeans who regard him as a menace.

The state visit here was originally meant to be a victory lap for Bush and his British ally, Tony Blair. In the neoconservative rhetoric of a year ago, the U.S. president was from Mars, while his caviling European critics were from Venus. But this week, in the bloody and disorienting aftermath of the Iraq war, the man from Mars seemed to be trying hard to communicate with the Venusians.

Bush gave a forceful keynote speech Wednesday at London's Banqueting House; the best thing about it was the tone of self-deprecating humor. He began by comparing himself to the American magician David Blaine, who was suspended over the Thames in a glass box. "A few might have been happy to provide similar arrangements for me," said Bush.

The speech continued with a cogent explanation of how Bush views the world, its dangers and American responsibilities. He courted European sensibilities by re-pledging allegiance to the United Nations, and he explained the moral imperative in Iraq in a way even Jacques Chirac could appreciate: "Whatever has come before, we now have only two options: to keep our word, or to break our word."

It wasn't Churchill, but it was among Bush's best speeches, and it drew praise from hostile commentators in the British press. It was the self-mocking jokes that appealed to several British people I queried.

"I think the boy did well," said Fitzroy Edwards, a 45-year-old immigrant from Jamaica who listened to the speech on the radio and found himself surprised. "I used to see him as a cold, stone-faced, arrogant man who looked like he was slinging a .45," Edwards said in a lilting Jamaican accent. "Now I do see a warmth in the man."

Bush was right, of course, to imagine that many Europeans would like to cage him in a glass box. The fact is that Europeans really don't like George Bush. In Germany and the Czech Republic this month, I heard the same comments as in London: Critics see in Bush all the things they don't like about America -- arrogance, belligerence, boorishness, self-absorption.

Many European Bush-haters would endorse the sentiments of Felicity Lee, a 23-year-old protester I encountered in Trafalgar Square carrying a hand-lettered poster portraying Bush as the devil. Lee described Bush as "ignorant, stupid, war-happy and disgraceful" and said he was "just as bad as dictators in other countries."

That view of Bush as a threat to world peace may seem crazy to most Americans, but it's surprisingly widespread in Europe. I spoke last week to a foreign policy gathering in Munich and found the intensity of anti-Bush sentiment chilling. The audience was a mix of liberals and conservatives, but they were united in their loathing of the U.S. president. Anti-Bush comments from German speakers brought roars of applause.

Anti-Bush feeling was evident even in Prague, a city that was liberated from communist rule little more than a decade ago. Any residual gratitude toward America is being washed away in the anti-Bush tide. After a meeting in Prague, someone actually asserted that King Abdullah of Jordan speaks better English than Bush.

New Europe or old, they're all Europeans, and part of what makes them angry is a sense that Bush sneers at their ideals, such as environmentalism. The night of Bush's state dinner at Buckingham Palace, I sat in on a discussion of global warming at a London church. "How does one discuss global politics with the rancher from Texas?" asked a London professor named Michael Grubb. "Frankly, he doesn't care much about what the rest of the world thinks."

Thus the importance of Bush's London speech. It was his chance to show Europeans that he is not the truculent cowboy they imagine -- and that he cares enough about their views to try to change his image.

To judge by the British press, his tone impressed even those who oppose his policies. The left-wing Guardian said the speech made Bush's message "palatable, even attractive." Another critical paper, the Independent, editorialized that the speech was "delivered with a degree of verve, eloquence and even humor that defied his reputation as the least articulate American president since the silent Calvin Coolidge."

It will be a long road back for a president who acted for much of his first three years as if the rest of the world didn't matter. But Bush has at least begun that journey with his trip to London.

davidignatius@washpost.com