Radioactive GW

William Pesek at Bloomberg.com writes:

There's an underappreciated common denominator among embattled leaders in Asia: George W. Bush.

For leaders wondering why they lost popular support, there's plenty of blame to go around. In some cases, it was a sluggish economy. In others, it was scandals or corruption. Inept handling of everything from poverty reduction to dodgy infrastructure to climate change may have fanned discontent.

Yet leaders in nations such as Australia, India, Japan, Pakistan and South Korea also are learning of the perils of cozying up an unpopular U.S. president. They've lost elections, resigned or have high disapproval ratings at least partly because of close ties to Washington.

Pesek forgot one -- perhaps the best known of the lot: Tony Blair. If Blair didn't suck up to Bush as much as he did post-9/11, he would likely still be in power today. Let's see if Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili will be the next leader stung by this association.