LatinaLista — The second most read article today in the Mexican newspaper La Cronica de Hoy is an article about President Bush.
The article isn’t about his trip to Mexico or his face-to-face with Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s president. Rather the article sums up the overwhelming view of Bush by people not just in Mexico but throughout South America.
The article focuses on the so-called “The Presidential IQ Report” by The Lovenstein Institute. It reports that Bush has the lowest IQ of any President of the United States in the last 60 years.
A visit to this web site clearly shows a tongue-in-cheek site biased against Bush. Yet, reading the Spanish headline and the importance and seriousness of how the report is presented makes it obvious that it is a story they consider “real” news.
It ranked above the third most read story of the day which was Calderon telling Bush that a highway would be more beneficial than a wall at the border.
To say Bush is not trusted in South America is an understatement. Pictures coming out of Brazil were common showing how protesters marked pictures of Bush’s face with a Hitler-like moustache and a swastika.
The thing is Bush may have had a very different reception, even with the same policies in place towards South America, had he not started the Iraqi occupation.
Mexican Pres. Felipe Calderon with Pres. Bush
(Source: whitehouse.gov)
That one action crystallized in the minds of many South Americans, who have always felt the United States bullies to get their way, that the US is an agressor against the weak — and the pre-emptive action just served as evidence to the world.
Those actions have proven to be the rallying cry against him and justification to villify him and tolerate such villification from South American heads of state like Hugo Chavez.
Viewing Bush in this light, it’s no wonder no one south of the border had any real expectations of him, or really believed he would deliver to what he was paying lip service. Otherwise, why dwell on a report ranking him with the lowest IQ?
I think the same can be said of him here, expectations I mean.
His Administration has been sinking deeper and deeper into scandal after scandal that just doesn’t damage their credibility to get anything done, but to even begin to believe what their real intentions are to support any cause in the first place.
That same skepticism extends to immigration reform. It’s pretty much accepted that in this fight, any kind of reformation doesn’t rest with this President or his Administration.
It rests with Congress.
In fact, the President should be worrying more about another kind of comprehesive reform — reforming his Administration so that they quit acting like they are above the law, or worse, that they are the law.
In an effort to find out what more Latinas/os think about Bush’s visit to Latin America, American Public Media’s Marketplace (broadcast on NPR) is asking that we visit and fill out this quick survey to share each of our insights.
