Reality-based Europeans

While the Republicans will be welcoming their conquering hero home from Europe on his fence-mending mission, the Europeans know you can't polish a turd:

[. . .]

Resistance to Bush's plans to promote democracy abroad was strongest in France, with 84 percent saying the United States should not play that role, according to the polling conducted for the Associated Press by Ipsos, an international polling firm.

About as many Germans took that position, 80 percent, while two-thirds of those in Britain said they didn't think the United States should be exporting democracy. Just over half of those in Spain and Italy felt that way.

"It's hard to believe our allies are indifferent to the spread of democracy," said Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. "But they obviously don't feel comfortable with George Bush as the self-annointed spreader of democracy."

[. . .]

My old aunt can still remember all the shenanigans I pulled when I spent summers in Germany when I was young. Take it from me, the Euros have far longer memories than the morons in this country. If Chimpy thinks he can spend a few days over there and mouth a few platitudes, and the Europeans will just roll over and forget about Iraq, he's sadly mistaken.

Update 18:00:

Via Blondie:

WHEN JOHAN VANDE LANOTTE, Belgium's Vice Prime Minister, goes to the toilets today, he finds the urinals in the offices of his ministry decorated with stickers. They show an American flag and the head of George W. Bush. "Go ahead. Piss on me," the caption says . . .