The Buzz On Bush In Davos.(George W. Bush and world)(Brief Article)

Maybe Davos is just mesmerized by the man nobody knows. At last year's meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine resort, the mystery man was Russia's Vladimir Putin. In conference sessions, over lunches and dinners, in the corridors, the buzz among the participants was all about the new Russian president. This year the buzz is all about George W. Bush. Although no members of the new administration are present, W hovers in the air like the green laser e-mail messages that a Swiss telecom start-up is beaming in the evenings on a Davos mountainside for everyone to see. Which is hardly surprising. As the new president conceded recently: "I can imagine there's a lot of anxiety about a fellow coming out of Texas. They don't know me from Adam."

So what's the buzz on Bush among the top businessmen, politicians and pundits gathered here? Surprisingly complicated. Yes, the snickering still resonates in the background--the kind of snickering that prompted London's Daily Mail to report that his father insisted the new president "is not as dumb as the world seems to think." But among even those predisposed to see the worst in W, the conventional wisdom has already shifted. "Yesterday we thought he had no ideas and no talent," Dominique Moisi, deputy director of the French Institute for International Relations, explains. "Today we think that he has the wrong ideas--that he's intelligent and shrewd, but he's taking America in the wrong direction." For the French and everyone else who makes a habit of ridiculing new American leaders, that's progress of sorts. And many others are at least willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. A crude breakdown of the different schools:

The prove-me-right optimists. No one is happier about the Bush presidency than the strong Latin American contingent at Davos. If the Europeans are a bit miffed that W's first trip will be to Mexico instead of across the Atlantic, the Mexicans and others are delighted. They see a Bush administration as strongly committed to free trade, and their biggest hope is that it will push hard to extend the free-trade zone beyond the current NAFTA partners, Mexico and Canada. "The U.S. needs to make the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, a counterweight to the EU," says Bolivian oil executive Carlos Salinas Estenssoro, clearly relishing the prospect.

Then there are those who see glimmers of light in very specific areas. The Indians are applauding Colin Powell's strong hint that he'll lift the sanctions imposed against them because of their nuclear-weapons program. Arab allies are encouraged by Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney. "With their experience in the Mideast, we'll see a lot of involvement in the region," says Saudi oilman Mohammed Almady. Japanese participants cautiously welcome the signs that the Bush ...