All eyes on President Bush

Today’s New York Times, a left-leaning, Democrat newspaper, predicts that President Bush in his major speech will support European integration and generally express a feeling of friendship for the European Union. That would be the approval the europhiles so ardently crave (because they want to stand up to America and show their own separate identity, of course).

Yet the words the article quotes, presumably from the preliminary copy of the speech the newspaper received do not put it quite like that:

"The alliance of Europe and North America is the main pillar of our security in a new century," Mr. Bush is expected to say at Concert Noble, a 19th-century hall, according to advance excerpts from his text. "Our robust trade is one of the engines of the world economy. Our example of economic and political freedom gives hope to millions who are weary of poverty and oppression."

Hmmm. Not quite the unqualified support for European integration and European unification that some people would like. He will also, presumably, call on Europeans (or, at least, those of them who are sitting on the sidelines and jeering) to join America in helping to build a prosperous and peaceful Iraq and Palestine.

It must be very frustrating for those overgrown teenagers, Chirac, Schröder, Solana et al. Try as they might they cannot get Big Daddy’s approval for their pet project.