The Tripping President

Sports-Fan-in-Chief

Ben Feller writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush is so emphatic about going to the Olympics in China that one might think flying halfway around the globe to attend the games is what presidents do.

"But never before has an American leader shown up at an Olympics on foreign soil. And Bush is doing more than just dropping by. He is planning to soak in as much as he can, with large blocs on his Beijing schedule devoted to watching athletes compete. . . .

"Bush plans to attend the men's basketball showdown between the United States and China. He will pick other events as he goes along.

"'I'm pretty relaxed about it,' Bush said in an interview with Asian reporters. 'Not every single minute of every day has to be totally organized. And so I'll be with a lot of my family, and they're fun to hang around with. I'm sure we'll walk around the different venue sites and just get a sense for the while atmosphere of people from all around the world.'

"The president does have some Olympic-themed meetings on his agenda -- as he put it, 'all the stuff you're supposed to do.'

"Bush says he is fascinated by China's effort to get the most medals, although it is seen by some outside the country as a government-run enterprise, like factory-made athletes.

"Once again, Bush draws a line between politics and sports.

"'Our objective is to get more medals than anybody,' the president said, sounding every bit like a coach for the whole U.S. Olympic team. 'That's what competition is about.' "

Spy Watch

CBS News reports: "A senior White House official says staffers accompanying President Bush to China have been told to leave their BlackBerries at home, reports CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer.

"The mobile e-mail blackout is the latest sign of U.S. concerns over Chinese cyber-spying. Sensitive presidential communications are always encrypted, but government cyber-security experts are worried about electronic eavesdropping on the BlackBerries, which are difficult to protect from snooping."

North Korea Watch

P. Parameswaran writes for AFP: "In circumstances echoing the Iraq war controversy, hardliners in US President George W. Bush's administration spun intelligence and triggered a nuclear crisis with North Korea, says a new book to be released this week.

"Intelligence on a North Korea effort to acquire components for uranium enrichment was politicized to depict the hardline communist state running a full-fledged production facility capable of developing a nuclear bomb, said the book by former senior CNN journalist Mike Chinoy. . . .