The president currently enjoys a… 15… percent… approval rating among Canadians. (Among Americans, it’s 49 percent or thereabouts.)

We know that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien didn’t bother to hide his preference that Al Gore win the election in 2000.

But the backlash sort of feeds into my theory. 2006 or 2008 will see a rather strong Isolationist backlash in the election: against our current neo-conservative defense policy (and possibly even the neoliberal “Internationalist” approach broached by the Democrats), against bi-partisan NAFTA-GATT free trade policy — as the manufacturing sector of the economy gets exported abroad, and against Immigration — Bush’s soft amnesty to get off the back of big business (ditto the Democrat’s more generous counter-proposal). At least electorally; the truth behind policy is that much of it seems like it is pretty well set in stone.

A complicated picture that goes beyond our tepid definitions of “left” “right” or to what degree the foreign world is acturally correct in their assessment of our political leadership. Resentments grow here in America over resentments grown abroad, and so Americans shrug and cling to thier (our) nationalistic identity.

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