Blair's tough choice: Kerry or Bush?

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1179982,00.html

Whom would Blair prefer to see in the White House - Kerry or Bush?

This time around, the trail has gone as cold as the political relationship. There has been no word inside the party of any plans to attend Kerry's Boston convention - although Brown has maintained many of his long-term links with like-minded souls on the other side of the pond, including with Kerry himself.

At a conference of academics, trade unionists and left-leaning Democrats in New York recently, I was struck by the degree of froideur felt towards Blair. Bush and Blair were disparagingly referred to as an item. According to one veteran Democrat organiser in the city: "Intelligent politicos think Blair's behaviour is mysterious. Your prime minister is seen as sharp and intelligent, while Bush is seen either as the dim smirking puppet of America's Wasp corporate establishment, or as a politically useful, underestimated schemer right in there with the Vulcans." Another believed that Blair has developed such hubris "that he felt he could override overwhelming anti-war feeling in Britain - and a majority of his own caucus".

MoveOn.org has been one of the most effective internet campaigning and fundraising devices for the liberal left in America - and move on is exactly what Blair's advisers keep telling him to do. Yet there was speculation in New York that Blair could even find himself drawn into the Bush re-election campaign, should a reciprocation of the president's state visit be arranged before November. Plans are afoot to unveil a memorial to the British victims of the World Trade Centre in Hanover Park in Manhattan, and there is speculation that the prime minister will attend. He will have to be at his nimble best to avoid being pulled into the Bush embrace - if that is what he wants.