IN THE BOX:

Amid a Lukewarm Europe, Bush Finds a Fan in Slovakia (ELISABETH BUMILLER, February 26, 2005, NY Times)

A respite came in Slovakia, where crowds cheered Mr. Bush's talk of freedom and the country's prime minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, raved about his meeting with the American president.

"I like Bush," Mr. Dzurinda told American reporters over lunch on Thursday. "You know why? Because he told me that he doesn't like to write, but he likes to speak to people, and I am the same."

President and prime minister also bonded, Mr. Dzurinda reported, over the complications of raising girls. "He has two daughters; I have two daughters," Mr. Dzurinda said. "The older is 20, the younger 17 - you can imagine." And did Mr. Bush commiserate about his party-loving twins?

Mr. Dzurinda wiped his brow with great drama and laughed. "We share some experiences," he replied. [...]

Mr. Bush prides himself on his plain-spoken English and Texas style, so he surprised an audience of Europeans on Monday in Brussels by quoting a French existentialist.

"Albert Camus said that 'Freedom is a long-distance race,' " Mr. Bush said in his opening speech about the future of the United States and Europe. "We're in that race for the duration and there is reason for optimism."

The full Camus quote, from "The Fall," is not quite so cheery: "I didn't know that freedom is not a reward or a decoration that is celebrated with Champagne. Nor yet a gift, a box of dainties designed to make you lick your chops. Oh, no! It's a choice, on the contrary and a long-distance race, quite solitary and very exhausting. No Champagne. No friends raising their glasses as they look at you affectionately. Alone in a forbidding room, alone in the prisoner's box before the judges, and alone to decide in face of oneself or in the face of others' judgment. At the end of all freedom is a court sentence; that's why freedom is too heavy to bear, especially when you're down with a fever, or are distressed, or love nobody."

Can Ms Bumiller really not figure out that's why they chose the quote for his visit to Europe?

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 26, 2005 11:58 AM