Bush attends summit

The war in Iraq is causing most of the animosity toward the president.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina -- President Bush is hopping from one frying pan to another.
Besieged at home with pressing problems, from high energy prices to filling the vacancy on the high court to the indictment in the CIA leak case, Bush has come for the fourth Summit of the Americas, facing noisy protests on the streets and widespread angst about his leadership.
It's his first visit to Latin America in a year, and Bush says he comes eager to delve into the thorny issues of jobs, trade, poverty and burgeoning democracies. But analysts monitoring the summit see little shift in underlying policies for the region and little gain for the embattled president.
"President Bush's main concern will be to get through the meeting and not be embarrassed," said Michael Shifter, a senior analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank on Latin American affairs. "He will face a very skeptical group of leaders whose mistrust of the United States has increased over the last few years. There won't be many warm abrazos [hugs]."
Iraq war
Underlying the president's slump at home -- and fueling much of the ill will in the region -- is his decision to invade Iraq.
"It's the war," said pollster John Zogby, who surveyed the region's opinion leaders in business, government, academia and the media two months ago.
"Stop Bush" signs are plastered outside the mammoth security zone enforced along the downtown coastal strip that has been cleared for the two-day summit. And thousands of protesters are preparing to launch their own, counter "People's Summit."