Nicholas Kristoff is generally despised in the liberal blogosphere, for reasons I might be able to divine if I ever read his columns, which are usually about following whores around Africa. But my first taste of Kristoff is enough to make me want to throw up. I thought the title was ironic, so I clicked on the link for a dose of snark: Bush, A Friend of Africa.

Instead, he offers this: “So as the G-8 summit meeting convenes this week, focusing on Africa, it’s worth acknowledging that Mr. Bush, and conservatives generally, have in many ways been great for the developing world. At their best, they bring a healthy dose of hands-on practicality to their efforts.”

Practicality, like these people are so fucked why bother to even try practicality. Most of the aid Bush has given to Africa–if it even makes it there once it’s appropriated–was arm-twisted and shamed out of him, and he ties it to impractical practices, like abstinence-only sex education. And we don’t even have money to lend, thanks to a completely impractical war being fought with an impractical lack of strategy.

In the absence of substantial aid, monetary or otherwise, a practical president interested in helping the country out of its ditch could try to do something about Robert Mugabe, could do something about what’s going on in the Sudan, and would give more than Bush has–European leaders on their way to the G8 summit are begging Bush to commit more resources, but he refuses, and he has even cut off funding for the UN Population Fund. For all Bush seems to care about Africa, it may as well not exist.