Literally Incredible

Sometimes it seems that few people notice Bush's habit of saying one thing and doing another, and that's frustrating. So I took great joy today in reading Paul Krugman's latest column, Threats, Promises and Lies. It seems that a lot of leaders around the world have noticed, and that has a lot to do with the unwillingness to take Bush at face value when he talks about war with Iraq and the aftermath. Case in point:

Consider the astonishing fact that Vicente Fox, president of Mexico, appears unwilling to cast his U.N. Security Council vote in America's favor. Given Mexico's close economic ties to the United States, and Mr. Fox's onetime personal relationship with Mr. Bush, Mexico should have been more or less automatically in America's column. But the Mexican president feels betrayed. He took the politically risky step of aligning himself closely with Mr. Bush — a boost to Republican efforts to woo Hispanic voters — in return for promised reforms that would legalize the status of undocumented immigrants. The administration never acted on those reforms, and Mr. Fox is in no mood to do Mr. Bush any more favors.

So take heart, America. As it turns out, it really is true that you can't fool all the people all the time.