At the White House, the Liberian leader for whom President Bush dances

President Bush is meeting this morning in the Oval Office with a woman who has become one of his favorite foreign leaders, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.

He gets along so well with Johnson-Sirleaf -- and respects her efforts to pull up her impoverished, politically-shredded country so much -- that he was uncharacteristically (and unsmirkingly) patient while the "Iron Lady" of Africa delivered a lengthy, effusive introduction to a speech he delivered Tuesday in downtown Washington on international development.

Among those cheering Bush was Irish rocker Bob Geldof, who with Bono has devoted huge amounts of time to wrestling with global poverty issues and, with Bono, has struck up a curious friendship with Bush.

In his final years in office, the president, too, has put a special emphasis on tackling the continent's myriad health and hunger problems. The result: He has gained praise from quarters where he often finds only criticism.

And as Countdown to Crawford noted this summer, with Iraq still unsettled and Afghanistan increasingly dangerous, Africa could emerge as one of his foreign policy successes.

Bush visited with Johnson-Sirleaf last February in Monrovia. On that steamy day, he drove along a freshly paved downtown boulevard that days before had been impassable except very slowly and in the sturdiest of four-wheel drive vehicles.

The city turned out for Bush, whose visit was limited to daylight hours for security reasons. He rewarded guests at a presidential luncheon with encouragement for the democratic path on which Liberia has embarked -- and this impromptu dance performance.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Eric Draper / The White House