By Patricia Lee Sharpe
I used to groom ambassadors and consuls general for photo ops and press conferences.
Like grandma’s etiquette for sitting and standing as ladies and gentlemen should, the rules were pretty simple: Don’t drum fingers or swing legs. Don’t grimace. Don’t point, pound your fist or gesture too flamboyantly. Don’t scratch, anywhere.
A recent photo of George "Dubya" Bush with French President Jacques Chirac in Brussels tells me our President has forgotten the most important of Grandma’s rules: don’t spread your legs.
Aside from neo-cons who demanded and didn’t get a bellicose stand on Iraq, no one has ever accused Jacques Chirac of being a wimp when it comes to promoting French interests. But study his posture in this photo. Very contained. Inclined courteously, confidentially, toward his interlocutor. There will be no need for raised voices in this conversation if he can help it. And his shoes are classic loafers, buffed to a high enough sheen for negotiations with the President of the United States, but with a soft Italian look to them, a symbol of ease. He is at home, in Europe, old and new. He looks relaxed, but one hand holds another; politesse notwithstanding, he is giving nothing away.
Dubya, I regret to say, puts me in mind of a sheriff in a Texas saloon, tense, hands on knees, courting trouble, ready to draw. The body language shouts cowboy boots, but the shoes are worse: thick-soled, tightly-laced, leather armor for the feet. The expression matches: skeptical, wary, a little anxious for all the bravado, the expression you’d expect for a body that’s claimed every inch of space it can occupy and plans to defend it. Bush turns his head toward Chirac, but his torso faces forward. Chirac looks up. Bush looks down. Hmmm. I've had another thought. Bush, planted so arrogantly, legs spread wide, has the posture of an emperor treating with a vassal, not a good stance for courting allies.
Maybe there’s reason to feel doubt and reserve when listening to Jacques Chirac. Maybe the U.S. should be insisting that France move closer to our position on many issues and not vice versa. But a seasoned diplomatic performer does not show it.
Someone should talk to George W. Bush. He’s not Dubya, the Governor of Texas, anymore. He’s George W. Bush, President of all these United States.
The old Dubya was the leader of the posse; the reelected Bush is programmed to be master of the powwow. This photo suggests he needs to work on his body language if he’s to make up for lost opportunities and get his agenda accepted by world leaders. Eastern or Western, they're more likely to fall in with his priorities, if the President adopts postures of respect and exhibits the good manners Dubya pretends he never learned from his mother and, no doubt, grandmothers.