re: “Bush….I really find it all rather odd.” – James

That’s a fairly honest assessment, i.e. the world wide hostility to Bush mirrors the US Democrat-left’s, and the world actually has few issues with Bush other than, perhaps, an “interventionalist” foreign policy (bear with me, I’m an American trying my best at “Euro-speak” here).

I’ll posit a possibility: Any American politician who is openly Christian, and evangelical or fundamentalist (Bush is not quite either), will realize a hostile assessment among the European elite. In post-Judeo-Christian Europe, I still think that moral issues trump environmentalism (Kyoto, global-warming-ism, etc.).

The point is arguable, but to be a Christian is to (a) accept absolute values and truth, (b) espouse a single morality system over others, and to be (c) dogmatic about one’s religious positions. The leftist-elite considers such positions to be “judgmental”, and that such proponents are likely to be ignorant, domineering, and “just plain wrong”. Christian’s are directed by Holy Scriptures to “love God and love one another”, and to allow God to be the judge. Leftists are taught to educate the ignorant, and win against what they would consider the ignoramuses they hate.

The divide between the two world views could not be greater. The issue is arguable, of course. But regardless, I’d maintain that Bush (and now Palin) is hated not for what he’s done, but who he is.