(Indianapolis, IN) - In another sign that Texas Gov. George W. Bush is thoroughly unprepared to be President, the amiable frat-boy failed a foreign affairs pop quiz posed Thursday by a Boston television reporter, failing to name the leaders of four current world hot spots. The front-runner for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination was asked to name the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan.
Bush was able to give a partial response to Taiwan, referring to Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui simply as "Lee."
"Can you name the general who is in charge of Pakistan?" Hiller asked, inquiring about Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who seized control of the country on October 12.
"Wait, wait, is this 50 questions?" asked Bush, apparently referring to the popular game "20 Questions" which sounds a lot like "50 Questions" but actually involves thirty fewer questions.
Hiller replied: "No, it's four questions of four leaders in four hot spots."
Bush turned the tables on Hiller, though, shrewdly asking him if he could name the foreign minister of Mexico. Hiller said he could not but also added he wasn't running for president.
Bush replied: "What I'm suggesting to you is that you can't name the foreign minister of Mexico, therefore you're not capable of what you do. But the truth of the matter is you are, whether you can or not." After Hiller disregarded the poorly-phrased rantings of candidate Bush, the questions continued.
Bush's campaign spokeswoman defended the governor's performance. "The person who is running for president is seeking to be the leader of the free world, not a Jeopardy contestant," said Karen Hughes, communications director for the Bush campaign. Most pundits agreed that this was irrelevant since Bush wasn't forced to answer in the form of a question.
"I would venture to guess that 99.9 percent of most Americans and probably most candidates could not answer who is the president of Chechnya," Hughes added. Reporters are planning to find out what other policy areas are a mystery to 99.9% of Americans so that these can be ignored in the campaign, too.