Why is the President of the United States about to sign that young boy's head in Ghana? Or does he think there's oil in his skull and he's about to "explore" with the tip of his pen? And, more to the point, why is he so enamored of tee ball?
At a roundtable with the press at the end of his Dark Continent adventure, President Bush was asked if anyone in, you know, Africa had brought up the possibility of an African American being elected to his office. Bush replied, with all the stumbling self-doubt of a 14-year old boy trying to undo the bra of his girlfriend, "That never came up...I'd just like to remind you what Kikwete said. He said, 'I hope the next President is as good as this one.'" That'd be Jakaya Kikwete, president of Tanzania, and another way to read that is: "Oh, fuck, it can't get any worse."
Then, asked about his legacy, Bush, his tongue bouncing around his mouth like a hooked trout being yanked out of a lake, responded, "I would just tell you this - and you've heard me say it and it's true - there's no such thing as short-term political history. I mean, short-term history of an administration - forget 'political' - there is such thing as short-term political history because there's an end result, win or lose. There's no such thing as an accurate history of an administration until time has lapsed - unless you're doing little-bitty things." It's not unlike watching a badger caught in a trap gnaw its own leg off.
Finally, Bush's mind turned to other things, like napping. When he was asked how he thought Americans viewed his trip, he said, really, "I don't have any idea. What are you writing about it? I don't know what they think of it. Ask another question. I really don't know. I'm focused on the trip. When I get home, I pick up a book and start reading it, and I'm sound asleep shortly thereafter. So I'm not -- I don't know. I really don't know." There's no ellipses there. That's the unedited answer.
Amid a season filled with the ripe anticipation of nascent change in the country, some things stay the same.