Exporting Compassion

By JOHN DICKERSON

As President Bush prepares to meet his European and Canadian counterparts at the G-8 summit this weekend, he is dusting off an image that he first presented to the nation during the 2000 campaign: the compassionate conservative. The President has suddenly started talking up a passel of humanitarian programs in an effort to show the human side of the Bush foreign policy. A prime example is the $15 billion AIDS-prevention program, pushed by the White House and due to be signed by Bush this week. He has also announced a new effort to help Americans volunteer overseas. "We are the nation that liberated continents and concentration camps," he said in a speech last week. "We are the nation of the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and the Peace Corps." The compassion strategy was also at work when Bush castigated the Europeans for opposing bioengineered food and subsidizing agricultural exports--because, he said, these policies are perpetuating starvation in Africa.

Just as compassionate conservatism didn't do much to win over hard-core Democrats, the overseas version probably won't convince the President's most vociferous European critics. But it could help soften his gunslinging image. Talking about the message that the Administration wants to send the world, a White House official says, "It's simple: Who has done more for you on the things you care about?" --By John Dickerson