President Bush visiting

When Germany’s leader, Angela Merkel, visited America in May, she invited President Bush to stop over in her hometown of Stralsund on his way to Russia.

This suited Mr Bush, since, as he said then, he found it “fascinating” that Ms Merkel had grown up in the east and that her views had been shaped by having known “the discomfort of what it means to live under the iron hand of a communist ruler”. [Financial Times]

What’s funny is that Stralsund is a very left-wing town. In fact, one of the main political parties there has said that Bush is “not welcome.”

As many as 5,000 protesters are expected to turn up in Stralsund — including the state’s environment and social ministers, both members of the Left Party. The planned presence of senior government officials has angered members of the center-left Social Democrats, the senior coalition partner. [Der Spiegel]

Preparatory security costs will be around twelve-million euros. So everyone is pissed about that too.

This should prove embarrassing for both leaders.

By the way, though Bush and Merkel act chummy, they’re very different really. Do you know what Ms. Merkel did before she entered politics fifteen years ago? She was a physicist. A PHYSICIST.

I am reminded of the single best piece of satire ever. It’s from the Onion: click here to read.