Has President Bush ever been greeted anywhere outside the US by cheering crowds?

September 5, 2007 8:55 PM

Has President Bush ever been greeted anywhere outside the US by cheering crowds?

The APEC* conference is currently under way in Sydney, with much of the city centre fenced off & patrolled by just about every policeman in the state, not to mention Dubya's own thousand-man travelling security entourage.

Amidst all the media coverage of special police powers, no-fly zones, protests, impending riots & so on, it occurred to me that plenty of people want to protest, while the majority seem to regard the whole thing as little more than a nuisance, and a bit of a circus. On the other hand, I've heard not one word about even one single person wanting to line the streets to cheer on the so-called "leader of the free world".

If Australia is supposed to be such a loyal ally of the US, and being culturally similar, one would think that at least a few hundred people would want to encourage the leader of the International War on Terror, but that's just not happening.

This made me wonder: where - if anywhere - in the world has Bush Jnr been greeted by enthusiastically cheering crowds? And if he has ever visited your town (outside the US) what was the reaction of the man in the street?

* A Pointless, Expensive Crock

posted by UbuRoivas to society & culture (22 comments total)

Albania
posted by Burhanistan at 8:57 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

gimme the check mark, Ubu.</small?
posted by Burhanistan at 8:59 PM on September 5, 2007

Albania, earlier this year or last... can't remember which. I'm thinking his favorable numbers still aren't terrible in some parts of Rumsfeld's "new Europe," countries that were formerly in the Soviet orbit. And I know I should have some links here, but it's late.
posted by hwickline at 9:00 PM on September 5, 2007

Does the thanksgiving visit to troops in Baghdad count?
posted by stevis23 at 9:03 PM on September 5, 2007

Bush himself sets the record straight about his recent visit to Albania. (More here)
posted by growabrain at 9:08 PM on September 5, 2007

Poland.
posted by brujita at 9:09 PM on September 5, 2007

Don't forget...

on preview: d'oh!
posted by b1tr0t at 9:23 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Georgia, apart from that one guy with the grenade. And yes, most of 'Noo Yurp' seemed to like him, mainly because he's not Putin.
posted by holgate at 10:18 PM on September 5, 2007

I would research visits immediately following September 11.
posted by Sfving at 10:24 PM on September 5, 2007

And I thought Albania's major export was ferocious political thought...? Oh, yeh, export.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:43 PM on September 5, 2007

I would research visits immediately following September 11.

I'm pretty sure the first major tour was to China, Japan and S. Korea in February 2002. Lots of Koreans were less than impressed with the 'axis of evil' SotU thing. Those visits had been postponed from October 2001, though he made a whistle-stop trip to Shanghai for the APEC summit. Not much protesting there, unsurprisingly.
posted by holgate at 11:27 PM on September 5, 2007

Well, how many people do you need to make a "crowd"?

From Crikey: Aussies for ANZUS. Formed just last weekend by the "proudly Liberal member" John Ruddick, Aussies for ANZUS is a group designed to welcome the US President to APEC and promote the Australian-US alliance. Its creator boasts a five-by-three metre banner than announces, "We support Bush, we love America, aussies4anzus.com", decorated with both countries' flags. The group has been given police permission to position themselves within the APEC security zone.
posted by Jimbob at 11:35 PM on September 5, 2007

I have worked both in Georgia and Albania the last two years. I can say that Bush is pretty well liked in Georgia compared to how he is perceived in other countries. Heck they even named the road to the airport after him.

They have a giant picture of him waving as you enter onto George W Bush Highway.

Albanians probably were just amazed that somebody famous wanted to visit their country.
posted by tarvuz at 12:27 AM on September 6, 2007

Jimbob: have you looked at their website? I'm not sure it's not an elaborate troll by somebody like the Chaser guys...

(A quote from their forum, which I emailed to a friend last night:

"are you guys fucking serious? you strike me as some of the stupidest cunts to have ever lived.
Last edited by Guest on Wed Sep 05, 2007 6:44 am; edited 2 times in total"

It amused me that it took the poster 2 edits to get that right ;-)
posted by Pinback at 12:42 AM on September 6, 2007

Canada and the US are pretty similar culturally, though not as similar as most people believe. Anyhow, a lot of people here hate either Americans or the US, but one thing that unifies us all is that we pretty much all hate George Bush.
Every time he came recently (to Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa) people organized busses to come from neighbourhing cities (in my case, Toronto) to go and protest. It's called BushBus, it's a pretty cool idea.
Anyways, I don't think anyone really likes him anywhere.
posted by alona at 2:49 AM on September 6, 2007

Opponent are inevitably much more more visible than supporters, because the supporters win if the status quo continues. They have less motivation to come out and be seen.
posted by smackfu at 5:33 AM on September 6, 2007

[few comments removed - please don't turn this into a Bush/AUS chatfilter question]
posted by jessamyn at 5:44 AM on September 6, 2007

Latvia.

And, Albania is where the crowd loved him so much they stole his watch.
posted by beagle at 6:08 AM on September 6, 2007

Romania
Lithuania
posted by HotPatatta at 8:54 AM on September 6, 2007

Um, They cheered for Bush in Albania, but didn't they also steal his watch?
posted by history is a weapon at 9:59 AM on September 6, 2007

The White house claims he put it in his pocket.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:02 AM on September 6, 2007

Reuters video of Bush's trip to Tanzania which includes shots of Bush interacting with a cheering, flagwaving crowd... not very deep, but still.
posted by Kattullus at 7:59 PM on February 18, 2008