Much Too Little, Too Late

President Bush's tour through Mexico and Central and South America (highlighted in the NY Times article "Answering Latin Left, Bush Pledges to Help Poor") is hypocritical. While Bush has been focusing on wars about oil and forcing US democracy in the middle east, the governments and people of the southern West hemisphere have been acting.
I don't blame Hugo Chavez in trying to find an alternative to the market system that hasn't been working in Venezuela. His instillation of anti-US sentiments isn't unreasonable either. Bush has condoned building a wall to block off all southern nations!
Bush's trip is most likely the sightseeing tour of a lame-duck president. (Just look at the picture in the NY Times article!)