(h/t to Marc Thiessen at the Enterprise Blog)

Tony Blair’s new book, A Journey: My Political Life is out and the Washington Post published some excepts today. This one encapsulates why America was taken seriously under President Bush and why it is laughed at to its face under Obama.

The two men came to like each other, so comfortable in each other’s presence that, years later at a G-8 summit, Bush turned to Blair during a statement by one of the leaders in attendance and said, “Who is that guy?”

“He is the prime minister of Belgium,” Blair replied.

When Bush grumbled that Belgium is not part of the G-8, Blair explained that the man was the president of Europe. ” ‘You got the Belgians running Europe?’ He shook his head, now aghast at our stupidity,” Blair writes.

*h/t to Dan McLaughlin for the subtitle.