“After NATO talks, Bush claims progress on missile shield talks,” was the Austin American-Statesman‘s above-the-fold headline on June 14. But (surprise, surprise) if you live anywhere outside of Austin, you were getting a very different message that morning about our president’s excellent adventures in Europe. Here’s a sampling of headlines from more mainstream news media around the country and around the world:
° “France and Germany Caution Bush on Missile Defense Plan” — The New York Times
° “Bush Warned About Missile Defense Plan” — The New York Times online
° “NATO Cool to Missile Shield” — Los Angeles Times
° “Tough Sell: Bush Pitches Missile Plan to NATO” — ABC.com
A few papers noted Bush’s attempted spin, though I could find none that took it as completely at face value as did the Statesman:
° “Bush Tries to Sell NATO on Missile Defense Plan” — Washington Post
° “Bush sees warming to defense plan. But some key NATO allies still skeptical” — Boston Globe
° “NATO open to further debate on missile plan” — Chicago Tribune
And in Europe itself, predictably, the reaction was even cooler:
° “Allies fail to share vision thing over rogue states,” noted The Times of London, usually a staunch conservative ally. And things were even worse on the continent:
° “The differences remain,” was how Paris’ Le Figaro summed it up, along with another story headlined:
° “George W. Bush: A pleasant tone, but a speech judged rather fuzzy.”
° “Bush pulls no yesses from the Europeans on the Space Shield.” — Corriere della Sera (Milan)
° “Bush, two no’s from Europe. On climate and shield, a Franco-German axis.” — La Repubblica (Rome)
This article appears in June 22 • 2001.