"What a moron [is Bush] !"

Last week at the NATO summit, Francoise Ducros, an aide to the Prime Minister of our northern neighbor, Canada, made the comment in a private meeting with some members of the press, but other members of the press who were not invited to that meeting overheard the comment and published it. The comment was this: "What a moron [President Bush is]." Okay, so what's the big news?

It was only an aide in a friendly government, Canada, who made the statement. After that comment was widely circulated throughout Canadian news media, Ms. Ducros offered her resignation to Prime Minister Chretian. He summarily refused it, stating that Bush is not a moron at all; he's a friend. My personal relations with the president are extremely good. How insightful! Chretian is French speaking, and English is his second language.

President Bush has very close and friendly relations with Russia's Prime Minister Putin as well. He speak no English or very little of it. Could it be the close friendship is partly because of a gap in communication of what Bush really says and what his translators declare to Putin?

Bush's mother may even agree with Ms. Ducros; certainly she does not hold our president in high intellectual esteem. But Americans are not too much on highly intelligent presidents. We seem to like the borderline types--men whom many wonder of their very ability to read.

Ms. Ducros apologized for her comments. That was standard protocol. But everyone knows our president can read because we have seen him on television doing it. Thinking? Now that's not his strong suit.