What is it about a trip to East Asia that turns the minds of shrewd politicians like President George W. Bush and his national security advisers into mush? Once again, an American president and his entourage have traveled to Asia. And once again, jet lag, inadequate oxygen in Air Force One or something in the local air has led them to mistake promises for accomplishments, atmospherics for substance, boilerplate for communication and excuses for genuine constraints.
Even worse, once away from their homeland, these leaders even lose sight of what normally drives U.S.-Japan relations: exports and trade. During last week's trip to Japan, China and South Korea, all of Bush's public words and deeds completely ignored the long-standing and worsening problems that Asian countries of all political stripes are causing the U.S. economy -- and by extension, the world economy.
Like his father, Bush apparently has forgotten that during an American election year, absent an immediate military crisis, voters are most concerned about jobs and wages. Bush's major concern for the remainder of 2002 is that the Democratic Party plans to take over Congress in November by attacking the president's economic policies. Given this domestic focus as well as East Asia's marginality in the war on terrorism, the president would have been smart to emphasize how major changes in Asian trade and other economic policies could benefit a still sluggish U.S. economy.