How’s this for an opening paragraph in a news story?

 ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The United States met its own low expectations for President George W. Bush’s first major foray into Mideast peacemaking, using a presidential summit to inaugurate new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks but leaving terms for the talks vague and the depth of the U.S. role unclear.

So much for who, what, where and when.

Watching the news coverage of yesterday’s opening event, a few things stood out:

• Democrats and “the world” fault Bush for not working on this problem more intensively. Apparently, we are the world’s policeman for some issues.
• No one mentioned the humiliation of Madeline Albright chasing Arafat to his car, begging him to return to Bill Clinton’s negotiating table.
• Why must the USA be the catalyst for mideast peace? Why not France? Why not Germany? What’s keeping them so busy?
• Ohlmert and Abbas both seemed committed to making peace. Their constituents do not.
• Charles Krauthammer noted that virtually every member of the Arab League flew to Annapolis for the conference, which belies the contention that the US has no influence in that quarter because of Bush.