[NYTr] Bush is "cockiest guy I ever met": Mexico's Fox

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Milt Shapiro (mexnews)

Reuters - Sep 20, 2007

Bush is "cockiest guy I ever met": Mexico's Fox

George W. Bush "is the cockiest guy I have ever met," former Mexican 
President Vicente Fox says in an autobiography that pokes fun at the 
U.S. president's bad Spanish and false cowboy bravado.

Fox, who retired in December after a six-year term, worked closely 
with Bush on immigration and trade in the pair's first year in office 
in 2001.

The two leaders referred to each other publicly as "amigos" but their 
alliance soured after the September 11 attacks turned Washington's 
attention toward Iraq and Afghanistan and away from Latin America.

Fox, a conservative and a rancher like Bush, says in his book, 
"Revolution of Hope," that their first meeting in 1996 - when they 
were both state governors - left a mark.

"My first impression of George W. Bush was one of total 
self-confidence. He is quite simply the cockiest guy I have ever met 
in my life," Fox wrote, according to an advance copy of the book.

Except, perhaps, when it came to language skills. Fox said Bush was 
"a bit sheepish as he tried out his grade-school-level Spanish" at 
that meeting in Austin, Texas.

Bush raised hopes in Mexico when he said early in his presidency that 
there was no more important relationship for the United States than 
the one with Mexico.

Many Mexicans were disappointed when Bush failed to deliver on an 
immigration reform that would have favored the millions of Mexican 
illegal immigrants north of the border.

Bush had charmed the Mexican president by visiting his family ranch 
in the central state of Guanajuato in February, 2001 "on equal terms."

"This was the great honor George Bush paid to Mexico, the reason I 
will always be his friend, no matter how sharply we may disagree on 
Iraq," Fox said.

It was Bush's first foreign trip as president and came before Mexico, 
then a member of the U.N. Security Council, refused to support the 
2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Fox, who often wore a trademark cowboy hat, was unimpressed when Bush 
turned down his offer to ride his favorite horse, a big palomino, 
during the Mexican ranch visit.

"Even now, George will be the first to admit that he's a "windshield 
cowboy," more comfortable driving his pickup truck around Crawford 
than he is on the back of a horse," Fox said.

Copyright  2007 Reuters Limited.
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