John Kerry, hinted at as much as the press went on and on about....
Many leaders `see him as a disaster'
But precious little of it will be available to President Bush when he visits the immaculately groomed cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer in early June for ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
The visit to France comes at the start of a particularly crucial month of diplomacy that will see Bush play host to the Group of 8 leading industrialized nations summit June 8-10 at Sea Island, Ga., and then travel to Istanbul for the June 28-29 NATO summit.
Before the D-Day ceremonies, Bush will call on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of the few European leaders who supports him, and Pope John Paul II, a critic of the Iraq war who, according to some Italian news accounts, may not have been eager for the visit.
The White House hopes Bush can use those high-profile events to project an image of confident global leadership and rally support for U.S. policies in Iraq before the scheduled June 30 transfer of limited sovereignty to the Iraqis.
It will be a tough sell, according to European analysts.
Indeed, tough tough tough