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Bush Road Trip

Aired May 30, 2003 - 11:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now the president is going to be wearing several hats on this weeklong road trip, acting as diplomatic repairman in France, expressing thanks to Poland, and offering counsel to the Middle East, as well.
Ron Brownstein is a columnist for "The Los Angeles Times," and he joins us from Palo Alto, California this morning.

Ron, good to see you.

RON BROWNSTEIN, "THE LOS ANGELES TIMES": Good morning, Leon.

HARRIS: What are your expectations of this trip that President Bush is taking? First of all, let's break it down into two parts here. Let's talk first of all about the European leg here. He's only going to be in Evian 24 hours. How much bridge building can be done in 24 hours.

BROWNSTEIN: I think that sends a clear signal that all the bitterness is not behind us. Look, there are a reason we are allies, we have been allies with the countries in the G-8 for a very long time, half a century or more; we can't have a lot of common interests around the world. We can't have a complete rupture with them, and I think the president and the administration clearly understands that, and you hear that in some of the more conciliatory language leading up to the trip.

On the other hand, the fact that he's only staying for 24 hours suggests that -- sends a pretty clear signal that he is not entirely ready to forgive and forget, and the fact he is beginning the trip in Poland, which is one of the former Soviet bloc countries, part of the new Europe that supported him on the war, is no accident either. it's a pretty clear signal there, too.

HARRIS: And delivering the centerpiece speech of this will trip in Europe in Poland. How do you read that? It seems as though on the outside looking in here from, from my imperfect perspective here, that's another one of these signals about old Europe versus new Europe that we heard in the past.

BROWNSTEIN: I think as John King said in his piece, got it exactly right. I mean, this administration sends very clear signals about who they believe is standing with them and who they believe is not, and they are not entirely bound by the sort of velvet diplomacy, in terms of making their opinions known. They have been very overt at times in showing their displeasure, and I don't think we're going to see anything like that. The president has been clear he's not looking for confrontation, but in these more subtle ways, which is often the language of diplomacy, they are continuing to send those signals.

HARRIS: All right, let's turn now to the middle east. President Bush is going to be going there. Would you believe if a year ago I had told you that the two prime ministers in the Middle East, the Palestinian prime minister and the Israeli prime minister, would get together for a very pleasant conversation and probably a more friendly conversation than President Bush would have with the European allies?

BROWNSTEIN: No, that is stunning, and it is just as stunning to imagine that President Bush himself will be in up to his elbows in personal diplomacy here by the middle of next week. I mean, this is a president who came in and felt that -- that the administration felt that President Clinton had been too personally involved, had raised expectations to unrealistic levels in the region, and yet in the aftermath of the Iraq war, and as part of his desire to build Democratic states in the Middle East, the president has really turned on a dime. I mean, we've seen a really extraordinary succession of events. The publication of the road map for peace in late April, the speech at the university of South Carolina where he laid out a rather visionary idea of how the Arab world can integrate the engagement into the world economy from free trade with America. The engagement with the new Palestinian prime minister, and even putting pressure on Sharon to move toward acceptance of the road map. That is something that he has not been willing to do before, and something that carries some risk with his domestic political coalition.

HARRIS: So with all of that being said, then what realistically can we expect to come out of this trip? What has to happen to call this trip a success?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, people have often described diplomacy in the Middle East as like riding a bicycle. The key is to keep moving forward. If things stop, if things slow down, that's when you start to get into trouble. Clearly, no one expects a Gordian (ph) knot to be severed here, and all the problems of half a century to be resolved. Always the key here, though, is to keep things moving, to show some incremental progress. That is the whole vision of the road map.

And I think the president certainly, if the meeting can go forward, if there's no violence that derails it between now and then, wants to show some incremental progress that will move toward the next step. That's really what you have to achieve here. There is a path set out in the road map. The political pressures grow more difficult at each step along the way, both in the Mideast and in the U.S., and the only way really to get progress is to just focus on the next step, each step at a time.

HARRIS: Yes, speaking of domestic politics, strange turns we're seeing being taken now in the Jewish lobby here in the country, getting behind President Bush on this. We've got to move on right now.

Thanks, Ron. Appreciate it. Always good to see you. Ron Brownstein of "The L.A. Times."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 30, 2003 - 11:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now the president is going to be wearing several hats on this weeklong road trip, acting as diplomatic repairman in France, expressing thanks to Poland, and offering counsel to the Middle East, as well.
Ron Brownstein is a columnist for "The Los Angeles Times," and he joins us from Palo Alto, California this morning.

Ron, good to see you.

RON BROWNSTEIN, "THE LOS ANGELES TIMES": Good morning, Leon.

HARRIS: What are your expectations of this trip that President Bush is taking? First of all, let's break it down into two parts here. Let's talk first of all about the European leg here. He's only going to be in Evian 24 hours. How much bridge building can be done in 24 hours.

BROWNSTEIN: I think that sends a clear signal that all the bitterness is not behind us. Look, there are a reason we are allies, we have been allies with the countries in the G-8 for a very long time, half a century or more; we can't have a lot of common interests around the world. We can't have a complete rupture with them, and I think the president and the administration clearly understands that, and you hear that in some of the more conciliatory language leading up to the trip.

On the other hand, the fact that he's only staying for 24 hours suggests that -- sends a pretty clear signal that he is not entirely ready to forgive and forget, and the fact he is beginning the trip in Poland, which is one of the former Soviet bloc countries, part of the new Europe that supported him on the war, is no accident either. it's a pretty clear signal there, too.

HARRIS: And delivering the centerpiece speech of this will trip in Europe in Poland. How do you read that? It seems as though on the outside looking in here from, from my imperfect perspective here, that's another one of these signals about old Europe versus new Europe that we heard in the past.

BROWNSTEIN: I think as John King said in his piece, got it exactly right. I mean, this administration sends very clear signals about who they believe is standing with them and who they believe is not, and they are not entirely bound by the sort of velvet diplomacy, in terms of making their opinions known. They have been very overt at times in showing their displeasure, and I don't think we're going to see anything like that. The president has been clear he's not looking for confrontation, but in these more subtle ways, which is often the language of diplomacy, they are continuing to send those signals.

HARRIS: All right, let's turn now to the middle east. President Bush is going to be going there. Would you believe if a year ago I had told you that the two prime ministers in the Middle East, the Palestinian prime minister and the Israeli prime minister, would get together for a very pleasant conversation and probably a more friendly conversation than President Bush would have with the European allies?

BROWNSTEIN: No, that is stunning, and it is just as stunning to imagine that President Bush himself will be in up to his elbows in personal diplomacy here by the middle of next week. I mean, this is a president who came in and felt that -- that the administration felt that President Clinton had been too personally involved, had raised expectations to unrealistic levels in the region, and yet in the aftermath of the Iraq war, and as part of his desire to build Democratic states in the Middle East, the president has really turned on a dime. I mean, we've seen a really extraordinary succession of events. The publication of the road map for peace in late April, the speech at the university of South Carolina where he laid out a rather visionary idea of how the Arab world can integrate the engagement into the world economy from free trade with America. The engagement with the new Palestinian prime minister, and even putting pressure on Sharon to move toward acceptance of the road map. That is something that he has not been willing to do before, and something that carries some risk with his domestic political coalition.

HARRIS: So with all of that being said, then what realistically can we expect to come out of this trip? What has to happen to call this trip a success?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, people have often described diplomacy in the Middle East as like riding a bicycle. The key is to keep moving forward. If things stop, if things slow down, that's when you start to get into trouble. Clearly, no one expects a Gordian (ph) knot to be severed here, and all the problems of half a century to be resolved. Always the key here, though, is to keep things moving, to show some incremental progress. That is the whole vision of the road map.

And I think the president certainly, if the meeting can go forward, if there's no violence that derails it between now and then, wants to show some incremental progress that will move toward the next step. That's really what you have to achieve here. There is a path set out in the road map. The political pressures grow more difficult at each step along the way, both in the Mideast and in the U.S., and the only way really to get progress is to just focus on the next step, each step at a time.

HARRIS: Yes, speaking of domestic politics, strange turns we're seeing being taken now in the Jewish lobby here in the country, getting behind President Bush on this. We've got to move on right now.

Thanks, Ron. Appreciate it. Always good to see you. Ron Brownstein of "The L.A. Times."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com