Thread: Bush Ill in Germany

Bush is taken ill at G8 summit
(EPA/Peter Macdiarmid)
President Bush - he is currently in his room after suffering a stomach complaint

President Bush was taken ill with a stomach complaint at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm this morning and had to skip a morning working session.

The US President appears to have fallen ill during the night, but still pressed ahead with an hour-long discussion with Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French President, their first bilateral talks since the French leader was elected last month.

As a precaution, the meeting was held in Mr Bush's private room.

"President Bush is slightly indisposed this morning and will rejoin the working meeting as soon as he can," Mr Sarkozy said, as he emerged alone from the US President’s suite in the Orangerie, a luxury hotel in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm where the G8 summit is taking place.

"I’m not sure if it’s a stomach virus yet or something like that," Dan Bartlett, an aide to the president, told reporters. "He’s just not feeling well in his stomach."

He added that Mr Bush’s doctor, Dr Richard Tubb, was monitoring the president’s health, and that Mr Bush hoped to rejoin the other leaders at the summit.

Sixty chefs are on stand by to cook for the eight heads of state, their partners and entourages, at the summit. The hotel complex where the conference is being held has its own herds of lamb and goat, and prides itself on fresh, locally grown produce.

Security in the kitchens is tight, and the secret service is monitoring them. Summit observers have noted that the precautions taken around Mr Bush are especially stringent - in one incident, a German police officer was prevented by White House staff from so much as touching the door handle of the President's Lincoln limousine.

Fish - on the menu at Wednesday night's dinner at the start of the summit - is a speciality at the seaside resort. At lunch on Wednesday Mr Bush shared a meal of asparagus and veal schnitzel with his host, Angela Merkel.

Yesterday afternoon Mr Bush was photographed sipping something that resembled beer, while sitting around a picnic table in a small group with Ms Merkel, but as the President has not drunk alcohol for more than 20 years it is unlikely that it was anything stronger than a fizzy drink.

At 7.30pm last night all eight heads of state at the G8 summit attended a working dinner, where the topic for discussion was the less than digestible issue of how to lend new impetus to the Doha development round. The menu at the dinner has not as yet been made public.

Afterwards the leaders were invited to enjoy a digestif, or post-dinner drink, and to chat on a one-to-one basis, although the 9.30pm time slot was past Mr Bush's usual bedtime. The US President is an early riser.

Mr Bush has had an unfortunate record for becoming indisposed while in public office. In January 2002, he grazed his cheek after choking on a pretzel and fainting while watching television.

In June 2003 he fell off his Segway scooter at his family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, and in May 2004 he fell off his mountain bike, grazing his knees, hand, chin and nose.

In another bit of summit misfortune, in July 2005 Mr Bush crashed into a police officer while riding his bike around the grounds at the Gleneagles hotel while attending the G8 summit in Britain. The US President scraped his hands and arms, and the police officer was hospitalised with an ankle injury.

Mr Bush's father, George Bush senior, also endured public embarrassment in January 1992 when he fell ill at a banquet, vomiting on the Japanese Prime Minister and then fainting. The incident was blamed on flu.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 902799.ece

Would not suprize me if the Transies poisen him a little for failing to sell us out. I really don't care what happen to this traitor. I pray for all on our side to be safe. I hope he is man enough to resign later today.

Word is he got ill after getting the news about the Senate blocking his stupid Immigration bill. LOL

Originally Posted by daggul

Word is he got ill after getting the news about the Senate blocking his stupid Immigration bill. LOL

I was thinking the same thing; how ironic that Americans are happy and celebrating a victory and all of sudden bush is sick to his stomach...

I don't care one way or another about bush...

Americans are happy and that is wonderful to me.

The first thing I thought of when I read this is that the defeat made him so angry that it made him nauseated. It probably didn't help him to be out of the country when it happened either.

Well, he's going to have to accept it. (As if he will).

Too bad that summit couldn't last for a few weeks.

The stomach summit!

The stomach summit!

Kind of cute Rockfish!

I'm not going to make any jokes about him getting sick out of respect for the senators who stood by us.

Lindsey Graham would love to say that we are "mean-spirited".

That's alright, Senator Kennedy has already said it. I wish President Bush a speedy recovery and a speedy departure from office.

I hope he pukes his guts out all day.

I can imagine him with his butt parked on the hopper while his aides are updating the cloture vote to him.