KARL EARNS ANOTHER PAYCHECK:

Bush confirms reputation as straight talker (Caroline Daniel, July 17 2006, Financial Times)

The coarse exchange appeared to underline Mr Bush’s preference for colloquial straight talking Texan over diplomatic ambiguity. Mr Bush remains the gung-ho leader, with a black and white view of the world, clearly dividing it into enemies and friends.

For him the root cause of the crisis remains Hizbollah and Syria, as self-evident villains. As Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, put it, the recent violence legitimised the US vision for a “different kind of Middle East” and showed that its “sponsors are in Tehran and in Damascus. Things are clarified now. We know where the lines are drawn.”