No. No grand bargain has been reached. I mean mandate in the old homosocial sense—lobster, fishing, hanging out at dad's house. CNN's showing the press conference live with Vlad and George talking in their respective mother tongues (interpreters off-screen) in front of a beautiful coastal-Maine backdrop. Bush made small talk (does he make another kind these days?) about how Putin was the only guy who caught a fish this morning. Putin riffed back that it was a team effort and that credit has to be given to the captain of the ship—"the 42nd president of the United States."Bush's giggles hid the reporters' stirrings, but I trust they were there. The 42nd president? Was Clinton clandestinely on the Bush family vessel, he and H.W. divining away below deck for another tsunami to get people to care about the brains in the family again? The only other explanation is that Putin counts Grover Cleveland (generally considered the 22nd and 24th) as one person, which obviously makes more sense than the more typical counting method but still seems awfully, with apologies to Sulky, Russian.
Then Putin offered, unprompted, that they let the fishy go. The coverage cut away before any Chechens could get ideas.
UPDATE: According to CNN, George H.W. Bush gave Putin a Segway (as a token of American culture? Its like McDonald's in Moscow all over again). Putin rode the Segway around the Kennebunkport compound. Umm, WTF?
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