The Real Threat

This is really no surprise:

Europeans see U.S. as biggest world threat.

A new Financial Times poll finds “that 32 percent of respondents in five European countries regard the US as a bigger threat than any other state,” followed up by China, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea:

Also, “the youngest US respondents share the Europeans’ view that theirs is the biggest threat, with 35 per cent of American 16- to 24-year-olds identifying it as the chief danger to stability.”

Here's the corollary for the above story:

“At the nadir of his presidency, George W. Bush is looking for answers.” Unbeknownst “even to many on his staff,” Bush has summoned “leading authors, historians, philosophers and theologians to the White House” to discuss questions like, “Why does the rest of the world seem to hate America? Or is it just me they hate?”

Absolutely classic narcissism. Totally clueless to his impact on people around him (in this case, the entire world).

Update: A salient comment from Steve Benen on the White House "chats":

What's unclear is exactly what the president hopes to get out of these conversations. Indeed, through the course of Baker's piece, it's clear that Bush isn't looking for advice, because he's already convinced that he's right. He isn't looking for constructive criticism, because he doesn't want to change course. He isn't looking for historical predictions, because he's already certain that history will look kindly on his tenure.

One gets the distinct impression that Bush is arranging meetings with these scholarly observers in the hopes that one of them will confirm everything he already believes.

The Hudson Institute's Irwin Stelzer, who participated in one of these White House chats, said the president either has "extraordinary self-confidence" or he's "out of touch with reality." Stelzer added, "I can't tell you which."

Irwin, buddy, I can give you the answer to that one. The answer is "both", and that's a very dangerous combination in an average person much less in a world leader.