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Bush Safari ends in climax
10/07/2003 23:40 - (SA)
Tom Raum
Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Botswana - A couple of very affectionate elephants played havoc on Thursday with the White House's well-orchestrated plans for the day.
It was clear what message President George W Bush's team wanted to project to foreign audiences and the public back home during his short visit to Botswana.
In separate events, but nearly perfectly synchronised language, the president, first lady Laura Bush and White House press secretary Ari Fleischer all said Bush's initiative to help countries like Botswana fight Aids showcased the compassion of the American people.
When Bush went to a small nature preserve for some big game encounters, four elephants were pre-positioned for the benefit of the president - and the cameras beaming pictures back home.
There was only one problem.
As the yellow pickup truck carrying the president, the first lady and their daughter, Barbara, rolled up, two of the elephants became engaged in some decidedly amorous activities.
The mating scene created an awkward dilemma for the White House advance team, charged with setting up perfect shots and events.
But Bush took it in stride, leaning over and whispering an aside into his wife's ear - to which she laughed and slapped him on the leg.
Romance over, Bush emerged from the truck and patted one of the elephants on its tusk.
Asked later if the elephant, a symbol of the US Republican party, had perhaps strayed off-message, Secretary of State Colin Powell remained ever the diplomat.
"The elephants were on message," he said, grinning. "We were all on message."
Powell is a retired four-star general and battle-worn soldier, but he appears to have some trepidation when it comes to the animal kingdom.
'Antelope things'
Touring Botswana's Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Powell offered that he and White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice hadn't seen rhinos as Bush had on his tour. He ticked off a list of what they did spot: "four elephants, six warthogs and", he added, "a couple of antelope things."
Those would be kudus.
Powell had previously confessed a general aversion to animals on the open range. In December 2000, he allowed that he was relieved when Bush did not force him to visit his central Texas ranch.
"Hey, I'm from the South Bronx," Powell said at the time, "and I don't care what you say, those cows look dangerous."
Observers would be hard-pressed to use the word "safari" to describe Bush's sprint through the African veld.
Sure, there were the occasional big-game sightings - like elephants, a mother rhino with her baby and perhaps half a dozen kudus.
And the First Family rode down the dusty roads in a picture-perfect, bush-ready vehicle - sharing elevated seats in the bed of a pickup truck with a guide who scouted for animals.
But Bush's black limousine followed behind - at enough of a distance to guarantee it wouldn't appear in photos.
And the reserve is hardly one of the continent's renowned wild game parks.
Created in 1994 primarily to educate schoolchildren, it occupies only about 20 square miles of land just outside Botswana's capital of Gaborone. It serves as a predator-free home to elephant orphans and other animals.
Zoo experience
In addition to the apparently tame elephants, led into place for the president to see, Bush saw two cheetahs in a fenced-in enclosure. The big cats, raised from infancy at the park, could have been petted, although Bush's caravan rolled on past.
In all, the president spent just 50 minutes on what tended more toward zoo experience than traditional big game search - a far cry from the better part of two days that former President Clinton spent on safari when he visited Botswana in 1998.
Still, Bush seemed to appreciate the scenery, if only for its similarity to the Texas town where his ranch is located.
"Looks a lot like Crawford," he remarked at one point.
Bush's entourage did have at least one unplanned encounter with the animal kingdom. On the way to the reserve, a stray donkey crossed the road between two cars in Bush's motorcade.
The animal caused some of the cars to slam on their brakes - and, as the mascot of the Democratic Party, provided a symbolic counterpart to the elephant show that would come later.
- AP
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