By James Forsyth
Sunday, June 8, 2008; B01

LONDON

When President Bush came to Britain on a state visit in November 2003, more than 100,000 people turned out to protest against him -- the largest ever weekday rally in London. But when the president comes to town this week, we'll be talking closer to 100 protesters than 100,000. Newspapers won't be running multiple pages of open letters to Bush from the great and the good. The television schedules will go undisturbed.

It will probably be the same on the other stops of what could be Bush's last European tour as president. He will, of course, receive a warm reception in the chancelleries and palaces of Europe: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are all firm believers in the Atlantic alliance. But this shouldn't be seen as evidence that Europe has finally reconciled itself to the man. Nor should the absence of large-scale anti-Bush rallies be taken as a sign of approval. All this shows is that Bush-hatred, like the president himself, has become a lame duck.

The gigantic protests that used to accompany Bush's visits to Europe were a backhanded compliment -- the tribute that impotent rage pays to power. Their sheer scale testified to his status as the most powerful man on Earth. Their likely absence this week will suggest that this aura is fading fast. Bush might reflect that, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, the one thing worse than being protested against is not being protested against.

Brown's two visits to the United States since taking over from Tony Blair a year ago are indicative of Bush's rapidly declining relevance in the European public's mind. When Brown paid his first visit last July, he was so keen to demonstrate that he was not "Bush's poodle" (as Blair was unkindly and unfairly dubbed) that he kept his suit on despite the heat and the relaxed atmosphere at Camp David. He was determined to show that the trip was all work and no play. He even publicly stated that "We have had full and frank discussions" -- not-so-subtle code for a bloody great row -- to ram home the point to the British public.

But when Brown returned to Washington this April, he stood next to Bush and declared that the "world owes President George Bush a huge debt of gratitude for leading the world in our determination to root out terrorism." There was no outcry back home. Here in Britain, our real interest was in Brown's meetings at the British Embassy with Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain. These got front-page treatment and analysis from that British media favorite, the "body language expert."

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Gus: here at yourdemocracy. net.au, we may be plucking tired of Bushit, but we still have to be relentless at bagging him and exposing his crookeries. Bushit has been the most horrendous mistake the US has ever made in its relationship with the rest of the world.

Bushit not only made mistakes, he made deliberate mistakes! Unforgivable!!! These led to much damage and deliberate breakages. Bushiaola cannot be forgiven for that, even if we are tiring from Bush-bashing...

To some extend, we'd love to stop the Bush bashing and get on with something more constructive (which we do anyway), but, until Bush-the-minus is impeached, there is no possibility of letting him off.