Bush Leverage w/Russia, Iran, China Falls as Oil Prices Rise

[katty]

more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ar4D7HVGikXo&refer=top_world_news#

Bush Leverage With Russia, Iran, China Falls as Oil Prices Rise

May 1 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, already weakened at home by the soaring cost of oil, is finding that it's also eroding his ability to achieve his foreign-policy goals.

``It's a geopolitical nightmare,'' says William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine and defense secretary under President Bill Clinton who is now chairman of the Cohen Group, a Washington-based consulting firm. Such nations as Iran, Russia and China ``don't see us as the colossus that can cause them any harm, either by our economy or by our prestige.''

Record-high energy prices are weakening Bush's prospects of assembling an international coalition to counter Iran's nuclear ambitions. They are diminishing his chances of influencing energy-rich nations such as Russia and isolating troublesome ones including Venezuela and Sudan. And they are straining U.S. economic and diplomatic ties with China, whose oil needs are skyrocketing.

Prices show no signs of abating in the last two-and-a-half years of Bush's presidency, with oil futures hovering near $72 a barrel through the November 2008 presidential election.

[phantom power]

1. 5 years of talking loudly and carrying a toothpick will do that to ya.

[cliss]

2. What incredible irony -

George Bush invaded Iraq to secure the oil.

3 years later, it will be that same oil that will be his downfall in the November elections. What karmic justice.

**As gas prices go up, Bush's poll ratings go down. Pollsters have been aware that Bush's ratings are inversely related to the price of gas.

[Skittles]

3. I still can't believe people actually voted for this clown

it is just mind-boggling the damage his incompetence is inflicting on America