While President Bush is in Europe defending his agenda to an uninviting European press, there are those back home with the same ill feelings as those abroad.

Bush is being blasted in the foreign press for his administration’s viewpoints on a number of issues, from missile defense to global warming.

He is being called “the arrogant Texas oilman,” and while that may be a little harsh, it’s not too far from the truth.

Bush has yet to budge when it comes to missile defense and the environment, leaving the American public echoing European sentiments.

A national missile defense system, a Reagan-era pipe dream, has never worked, and, according to scientists, will never work.

All it will do is disable the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, possibly reinvigorating another arms race.

Despite opposition, even among members of his own party, Bush hasn’t wavered and plans to start tossing away taxpayer dollars into an ineffective and unproved wastepile.

Then comes the environment, where a lot of Americans wouldn’t disagree with the European press.

Bush plans to go forward with Arctic drilling, despite the fact that it will take seven years before we get a drop of oil.

His administration backed out of campaign pledges to toughen emission standards, and erased Clinton-era environmental regulations. Sound anything like an arrogant Texas oilman?

Before Bush left to flutter his eyes and shake hands with European leaders, he should have done a better job convincing his own people what he’s doing is for the good of all.

editorialboard: Michelle Kann, Tim Paluch, Jocelyn Marcus, Zach Calef, Ruth Hitchcock, Cavan Reagan