High praise for one head of state from another:
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose closeness to U.S. President George W. Bush earned him praise from Washington and derision at home, says he thinks the American leader’s lightweight image is “complete bull.”
In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Blair said the image was not only “complete bull” but “total nonsense.”
He added in the interview with contributing editor David Margolick, “I was about to say, ‘He’s not someone who will philosophize,’ but actually that’s not true, because he does. But ‘directness’ is the best way I can describe it. He has a very, very direct way of stating exactly what he feels about a situation.”
Blair added about Bush, “He is highly intelligent, and it’s not clotted by so many nuances that the meaning is obscured. The good thing about (Bush) is that once he does really think that an issue has to be tackled he has big reserves of courage for doing it, and he won’t really be diverted.”
“I trust him, and that is extremely important at our level of politics,” Blair, a chief Bush ally in the Iraq war, said.
The British prime minister defended being both friends with Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, saying, “They’re very different people, but so what? We all have different friends.”
It is remarkable that Blair seems to have such strong relationships with Clinton and Bush. Clinton is certainly more intellectual than Bush and is likely possessed of a genius level IQ; but he is a moral vegetable. Bush has above-average intellect and scruples. I certainly prefer the latter combo.
(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)
