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Bush flunks test on India

Republican presidential candidate George W Bush, who has been prone to stumble on foreign policy, has said he is ''plenty smart'' despite flunking a pop quiz on the leaders of four world hot spots.

''America understands that a guy doesn't know the name of every single foreign leader. That's not what Americans are making their choices on about who's going to be the president,'' the Texas governor said in an ABC television interview yesterday.

Bush, asked to name the leaders of India, Pakistan, Taiwan and Chechnya -- could come up with only a fragment of one, ''lee,'' for Taiwan's president Lee Teng-Hui.

The surprise quiz by a Boston television reporter last week set off a debate over whether knowing these names had anything to do with presidential leadership potential, whether it constituted ''gotcha'' journalism and whether Bush's front-running campaign had been damaged or merely embarrassed.

''I don't think you should judge him by that,'' said former republican candidate Pat Buchanan, who quit last month to seek the reform party's presidential nomination.

''But I do think this. The governor has a problem with perception and the perception is that not only does he not know a great deal, he's defiant about it. He likes the idea,'' Buchanan said on the CNN program ''late edition.''

So far, almost everything has gone like clockwork for the Bush presidential campaign. He leads the six-man republican field by a wide margin and has a huge fund-raising advantage. Most independent analysts believe he will win the republican presidential nomination next year.

But since he flunked the world leaders' test, Bush has found himself on the defensive, reassuring Americans he has the intellectual gravitas to be president.

Comedians have had a field day. The New York Times weighed in with an editorial saying the Texas governor had time ''and a clear need'' to master foreign policy. The Washington Post suggested voters would be ''more sympathetic than censorious.''

A cartoon in the Atlanta Constitution portrayed Bush as president, addressing the nation from the White House. ''My fellow Americans,'' he is saying, ''the bombing of the L-shaped country will continue, until its leader, what's-his-face with the mustache, agrees to something ...''

The pop quiz has raised the stakes for Bush in two republican presidential debates he has agreed to take part in next month, since his challengers are likely to test his knowledge of foreign policy once again.

''I don't really mind people picking on me,'' he said in a Time magazine interview released yesterday.

''I know what I can do,'' he said. ''I've never held myself out to be any great genius, but I'm plenty smart. And I've got good common sense and good instincts. And that's what people want in their leader.''

Democratic presidential front-runner Al Gore attacked Bush, saying his failure to identify the leaders was an example of his lack of foreign policy know-how.

Bush has made a series of slips on foreign names. He mixed up the European nations of Slovakia and Slovenia and referred to Grecians instead of Greeks, Kosovarians instead of Kosovars and East Timorians instead of East Timorese.

''Does the American public want to take a chance in 2001 with a president who needs on-the-job training?'' asked a spokesman for the vice president.

But senate majority leader Trent Lott said yesterday he thought the line of questioning and the resulting attacks were unfair, calling them ''classic 'gotcha' politics.''

''I think the important thing is the policy, not whether or not you know the names of the prime ministers or presidents of 172 nations in the United Nations,'' the Mississippi Republican said on the Fox News programme 'Give me a Break.'

Reuters

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