The President

I have seen two US presidents in my lifetime. Of course by see I mean spotted Bill Clinton on the street in Seattle and glimpsed George Bush getting on a plane in Eau Claire. So I was happy to find out that the President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers was going to be speaking at the second day on the mass media conference I was attending. I then conveyed this excitement to both my host parents and one of my political science professors and received a lukewarm responses followed snide comments. As it turns out I think I was one of the only people at the conference excited about hearing him speak (I forgot my camera otherwise I would show you pictures). People in Latvia are just not excited about the new president and I feel kind of sorry for him. Standing up there speaking I felt he looked like one of the puppet politicians that the Soviets installed all over Eastern Europe to help take over governments, unheard of people with little to nothing interesting to say and less interest in actually doing anything productive. Maybe the people of Latvia were just too excited about the former President Vaira Vike-Freiberga and no one could possibly live up to their expectations. So from now on the position of president will be looked upon with ridicule and humor instead of respect and admiration as it was under Vaira Vike-Freiberga. Maybe that's how a country truly knows it has entered the west, boring ineffective politicians.
Here is an article by my political science professor which explains the Zalters and the Latvian presidency in more detail posted by the American Latvian Association.