He still delivers foreign-policy speeches haltingly and looks like a grad student struggling through his oral exams when he faces reporters on the subject. But lately George W. Bush has shown some new smarts, swimming in waters that previously seemed over his head to counter those impressions. He helped Bill Clinton turn back a shortsighted Republican move to pull U.S. troops from Kosovo. It would "tie the President's hand," he intoned presidentially. And because Bush is not labor's candidate, he could afford to be more enthusiastic than the Democratic Veep in lobbying Capitol Hill to pass Clinton's China-trade bill.
Turning the...