He will, for example, meet with families of some of the 53 British soldiers who have died in Iraq since the start of the war. In an interview on Thursday with the Press Association, Bush said he would “share with them a deep grief, my sorrow for the sacrifice.” It will take all the charm Bush can muster to get the wider British public to warm to him, judging from new polling that reveals scathing anti-Bush sentiment in Britain.
On Friday the British polling firm YouGov provided NEWSWEEK with survey data gathered in recent days. It doesn’t make pretty reading for Bush fans. By big majorities, Britons believe Bush is “not very intelligent” (62 percent), “insincere” (53 percent) and “not very well informed about the world” (62 percent). He also “does not care much about the views of people in other countries” (82 percent), is “a bad advertisement for America” (65 percent) and is “foolish” (63 percent).
The attitudes uncovered by YouGov seem to have more to do with anti-Bush sentiment than with anti-Americanism. Asked how much confidence they had in the ability of the United States to act responsibly in its role as the world’s sole superpower, 57 percent of the Britons surveyed said “not much” or “none at all.” However, asked if the United States would behave more responsibly under a different president, a plurality of 42 percent said they thought that would be the case.
In his interview with the Press Association, Bush praised British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s tolerant acceptance of the political price he’s paid for standing shoulder to shoulder with Bush in Iraq. Said Bush: “I have never heard him complain about the polls, or wring his hands. Never once has he said to me, ever, ‘Gosh, I’m feeling terrible pressure’.” Perhaps Bush can be equally stoic about his own bad-news polls in Britain.
