Mr. Geldof praised Mr. Bush for his work in delivering billions to fight disease and poverty in Africa, and blasted the U.S. press for ignoring the achievement. Mr. Bush, said Mr. Geldof, "has done more than any other president so far."
"This is the triumph of American policy really," he said. "It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion."
"What's in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing," Mr. Geldof said.Mr. Geldof said that the president has failed "to articulate this to Americans" but said he is also "pissed off" at the press for their failure to report on this good news story.
"You guys didn't pay attention," Geldof said to a group of reporters from all the major newspapers.
People of good will recognize the truth.
White House Photo, Eric Draper
Update: ninme found some gorgeous pix from Tanzania, too, which sent me back to the White House site to see more. I found this series of Bush among the Masai and at a malaria clinic. And I found this: President Kikwete's rather incredible praise of W., which you can add to your "what do they think of America" files. Later on in the press conference you will note President Kikwete's pleading with the Democrats not to monkey with the ABC program that has worked so well against AIDS. PEPFAR is the umbrella program that may be sunk because Westerners don't like promoting the "A" in ABC.
Let me just make an appeal: Let PEPFAR continue. This is a passionate appeal from us. It has been quite useful, as I was saying in my speech. There would have been so many orphans to date had it not been for PEPFAR, the care and treatment -- so many parents now who have been infected can live. And some of them can live as many years as possible, as long as they adhere to the ABCs of the person infected with HIV living on ARVs.
So can you imagine if this program is discontinued or disrupted, there would be so many people who lose hope, and certainly there will be death. You create more orphans. My passionate appeal is for PEPFAR to continue. Through PEPFAR you know we did nationwide testing; in six months we have been able to have 3.4 million people tested, and through PEPFAR we got 2 million test kits. Had it not been for PEPFAR, would have done less than that. So it's for us, really, for PEPFAR not to continue, it's a recipe for disaster for us. That's what I can say.
