Tea and black helicopters with POTUS*
Back home here in Budapest, we have a semi-embarassing American ambassador: George Bush's cousin, George Walker. He's a nice enough guy, I've heard, even with a sense of humor. However, as the Prez's cousin, one wonders about his qualifications for the job**. Nevertheless, George (the Prez) seems to like him, or at least feel a familial draw, because he's decided to pay him a visit here in Budapest.
Dropping in on your cousin seems like a friendly thing to do, doesn't it? Let's review: currently I'm sitting in my office listening to helicopters circling the downtown. Instead of taking five minutes to walk to work this morning, I took nearly half an hour; I live in the sixth district and must cross one of the major arteries of the city, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, to get to work. Turns out you can't cross Baj-Zsil right now: no pedestrians, no car traffic, no nothing. The fifth district, where POTUS is headed for very important slabs of Eszterhazy torta, is surrounded right now with a triple ring: cops, another line of cops, and a throng of hapless Pestieks trying desparately to get to work. (The fifth district is Budapest's Wall Street, so much of the banking and associated companies are within the ring of cops. As is my office.) I joined a group of sweaty, briefcase-clutching investment bankers moving from crosswalk to crosswalk, pleading with the cops to let us across to our offices. Finally, we found one who ushered a group of us from Erzsebet Ter to Oktober 6th, obviously an act of mercy. All this rumpus is of course following on the three day towing extravaganza that has cleared the inner city (including my street) of thousands of parked cars. The length of Bajcsy, Deak Ter, etc have been under police wraps since Monday night. And on top of that, all the guests in the Meridian Hotel on Deak Ter got uncerimoniously booted, no warning, on Monday night to make room for crowds of buzz-cut guys with ear pieces Subtle. Of course, maybe it is a decoy, and POTUS is actually staying elsewhere.
The real question, raised by the ever-astute Favorite Husband last night, is: where does it end? What's actually reasonable for a state visit? Is protecting the life of POTUS worth shutting down public transportation for hours, preventing people from working, closing Hungarian airspace, bringing in a rocket-proof motorcade and American helicopters, a thousand security dudes on top of all the Hungos who are going to be involved? What's a reasonable expense for the American and Hungarian people to bear? I live in a flat that overlooks Bajcsy where POTUS's rocketproof limo drove moments ago: my living room window is a perfect sniper's perch, as are thousands of others along the street. (Note to Secret Service: that's not a threat to POTUS, just an observation.) Would it be reasonable to make everyone who has a Bajcsy-facing window leave their apartments while POTUS drives by? Would it be reasonable to clear the downtown entirely and shut all businesses for the day? Do George and George really need to eat goose liver together in Budapest if it causes all this fuss, disarray, and inconvenience?
Two observations: based on the comments I heard on the street going to work, the anti-Bush rally planned at 4 pm this afternoon in front of the US embassy on Szabadsag Ter is probably going to be a lot bigger than it would have been if POTUS hadn't pissed off so many Pestieks by coming to town.
The second observation is that this POTUS has taken a lot of flak for not traveling enough, for staying home in America and receiving our allies in the White House. Following this experience, I have to say that I think this may have been one of his better decisions.
*POTUS= President of the United States, for those not into Secret Service lingo
**Continuing the theme, our next ambassador is slated to be George's (the Prez) ex-girlfriend.