Bush A Uniter And Not A Divider?

Interesting news from Maine, where our President and the newly-elected president of France are currently vacationing:

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) – It is not a summit, not even a working lunch. Just a social meal between two world leaders who happen to be vacationing near each other in New England.
That, at least, is how the White House describes Saturday’s sit-down between President Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. But there is more to it than a get-to-know-you.
By welcoming Sarkozy to his parents’ seaside home, Bush is laying a foundation for what he hopes are drastically improved relations with France over the rest of his term. In turn, the newly elected Sarkozy is eager to bond with Bush and display a pro-American mind-set.

We can argue about how truly eager Sarkozy is to cozy up to Bush and America, but there’s no doubting that he’s a more America-friendly leader than France’s past president Jaques Chirac was. Which is an interesting addition to a tally of leaders who have been elected in the world’s most major powers which have come into office seeking closer ties with America.
Bush is often accused by Democrats of having estranged the rest of the world. Indeed, at least one Democrat presidential candidate for 2008 has put “repair our alliances” at the top of his list of foreign policy objectives (ahead of fighting terrorism, you’ll notice, which also takes a back seat to combating global warming), and I’m sure that if all the candidates were asked they’d voice similar opinions. They’d say something along the lines of “the Bush administration has made America less liked in the world.”
Yet, if we look at who the people in some of the world’s powers have been electing for their leaders in the past several years, the trend has been for stronger ties with America. Not weaker.
Angela Merkel ousted virulently anti-Bush and anti-America chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Germany. Stephen Harper did the same to Paul Martin in Canada. Now Sarkozy is moving France closer to the US as well, and when we couple this with continuing good relations with John Howard in Australia, Shinzo Abe in Japan and leaders from many of the world’s less-prominent nations a trend becomes clear.
At worst, America’s “standing” in the world is a wash. At best, the seems to be a growing desire to renew and improve relations with America in many of the world’s nations. Which is completely at odds with what we’re told in the media, but you shouldn’t believe everything you see on television either.