President George "scaredy-cat" Bush

For a president that says "Bring it On" to Al Qaeda, he sure seems like a yellow-bellied wimp when it comes to having a town hall meeting with those scary German tradesmen, butchers, bank employees and students.

The much-touted American-style "town hall" meeting the White House
has been planning with "normal Germans" of everyday walks of life will
be missing during his visit to the Rhine River hamlet of Mainz this
afternoon. A few weeks ago, the Bush administration had declared that
the chat -- which could have brought together tradesmen, butchers, bank
employees, students and all other types to discuss trans-Atlantic
relations -- would be the cornerstone of President George W. Bush's
brief trip to Germany.

[...]

But on Wednesday, that town hall meeting will be nowhere on the
agenda -- it's been cancelled. Neither the White House nor the German
Foreign Ministry has offered any official explanation, but Foreign
Ministry sources say the town hall meeting has been nixed for
scheduling reasons -- a typical development for a visit like this with
many ideas but very little time. That, at least, is the diplomats' line.
Behind the scenes, there appears to be another explanation: the White
House got cold feet. Bush's strategists felt an uncontrolled encounter
with the German public would be too unpredictable.

[...]

The Germans, though, insisted that a free forum should be exactly that.
Wolfgang Ischinger, Germany's Ambassador to the United States,
explained to the New York Times last week: "We told them, don't get upset
with us if they ask angry questions."

It's a good thing he's not in grade school, or he'd really get made fun of for being a scaredy-cat president.