It’s the kind of story that I think a lot of journalists and commentators really salivate over: beleaguered President George W. Bush’s final farewell tour of Europe, a grueling schedule of five countries in six days, a papal visit, debates on Iran, economy, oil, and environment, and a painful reckoning of soft power lost. I mean, how often does a reporter get permission from the editor to describe a foreign leader as a “lame duck” who is “hobbling somewhat pathetically out of the limelight” and even having sunk to such irrelevance that he “is not even popular in the role of the enemy anymore.” However it is the “indifference” with which Bush is being met in Europe that represents a sad misunderstanding of these recent events in continental geopolitics – something that John Vinocur picks up on very nicely in his column earlier today. And naturally, with this trip occurring more or less in the footsteps of Dmitry Medvedev’s first European tour as President and a few visits from Vladimir Putin, who was still treated like the real power, the comparative legacies of the United States and Russia are obviously going to be on people’s minds.