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HONG KONG - HONG Kong's last British colonial governor Chris Patten said in a radio interview on Monday that he thought President George W. Bush was the worst American president he had seen.
'I think that President Bush has been the worst American president in my lifetime,' Mr Patten, who was in the former British colony this week to promote his latest book on global politics and economy, told broadcaster RTHK.
'I don't happen to think that President Bush is as foolish as lots of Europeans and others suggest. I think he's actually perfectly intelligent,' he said ahead of Tuesday's US presidential election.
'But I don't think he's got a first-class temperament, put it mildly. And I think he's deeply uncurious intellectually.'
Mr Patten, a former minister under conservative British governments, said the Bush presidency was marked by 'hapless unilateralism' which had led the United States and Britain into war with Iraq.
He blamed the Bush administration for feeding anti-Americanism and for what he called a fixation with taxation policies for the rich and mismanagement of the economy.
Mr Patten admitted being a strong supporter of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama and said he was impressed by his intelligence and the way he has run the campaign.
'People say that governing isn't like running a campaign, true. But if you run a very organised, well-ordered, well-focused campaign, it says something about the way you will run an administration.'
Mr Patten was the governor of Hong Kong between 1992 and 1997, when the city was handed back to China after 155 of British colonial rule. He later became a European commissioner and is now chancellor of England's Oxford University. -- AFP
'I think that President Bush has been the worst American president in my lifetime,' Mr Patten, who was in the former British colony this week to promote his latest book on global politics and economy, told broadcaster RTHK.
'I don't happen to think that President Bush is as foolish as lots of Europeans and others suggest. I think he's actually perfectly intelligent,' he said ahead of Tuesday's US presidential election.
'But I don't think he's got a first-class temperament, put it mildly. And I think he's deeply uncurious intellectually.'
Mr Patten, a former minister under conservative British governments, said the Bush presidency was marked by 'hapless unilateralism' which had led the United States and Britain into war with Iraq.
He blamed the Bush administration for feeding anti-Americanism and for what he called a fixation with taxation policies for the rich and mismanagement of the economy.
Mr Patten admitted being a strong supporter of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama and said he was impressed by his intelligence and the way he has run the campaign.
'People say that governing isn't like running a campaign, true. But if you run a very organised, well-ordered, well-focused campaign, it says something about the way you will run an administration.'
Mr Patten was the governor of Hong Kong between 1992 and 1997, when the city was handed back to China after 155 of British colonial rule. He later became a European commissioner and is now chancellor of England's Oxford University. -- AFP
