George W Bush Smackdown (not that it's terribly hard to do).

Brad DeLong cannot believe this and asks "Why are we ruled by this Moron?"

The Belgravia Dispatch: Putin To Bush: Thanks, But No Thanks: Well, this is just priceless:

During a joint news conference Saturday in St. Petersburg, Bush said he raised concerns about democracy in Russia during a frank discussion with the Russian leader. "I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same," Bush said. To that, Putin replied, "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy that they have in Iraq, quite honestly."

[Transcript:

BUSH: I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq, where there’s a free press and free religion. And I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia will do the same thing. I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style democracy.

PUTIN: We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.

BUSH: Just wait.]

There were some interesting comments on Brad's blog that I'll reproduce over here:

1) just some good-natured ribbing between 2 elected dictators. Nothing to see here. Move along.

This is one of those statements at which you initially smile at and then relize that theres quite a bit of truth in.

2) It's not touching: its utterly embarrassing. There are many decent people in Russia who clearly want a more democratic government, but who nevertheless are forced to admit that Putin is a more intelligent and practical leader than Dick Cheney and his sock puppet, and that these were produced by US democracy after all.

How could so many million Americans vote for this insane charlatan?