President Bush's Foot In Mouth Disease Rages Unchecked

According to Reuters, The President we know and love has returned. No more of this weeper stuff:

"Even for someone as gaffe-prone as U.S. President George W. Bush, he was in rare form on Friday, confusing APEC with OPEC and transforming Australian troops into Austrians.

Bush's tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum on the eve of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney.

"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction," he told Prime Minister John Howard. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit."

Several hundred people at the conference laughed. Bush corrected himself and joked, "He invited me to the OPEC summit next year." Australia has never been a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Later, Bush mentioned that Howard had gone to visit "Austrian troops" last year in Iraq. There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 Australian military personnel in and around the country.

After his remarks, Bush took the wrong way off-stage and, looking baffled, and had to be re-directed to a center-stage exit. A veteran White House correspondent seized the opportunity to ask Bush whether there had been any new message in his speech. POTUS bristled: "Haven't you been listening to my past speeches?" he asked before turning away.

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