This story apparently has legs:

President Bush on Tuesday said that his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry, should "back up" his claim that a number of world leaders want a new U.S. president.

"I think if you're gonna make an accusation in the course of a presidential campaign, you out to back it up with facts," Bush said Tuesday during a news conference with the Netherlands' Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende.

Bush made his statement when asked by reporters about a comment Sen. John Kerry made to supporters March 8 at a fund-raiser in Florida: "I've met more leaders who can't go out and say this publicly, but boy, they look at you and say, 'You got to win this. You got to beat this guy.' "

Seems like a pretty dumb thing for Kerry to say, and a win/win exchange for Bush. Kerry looks lame not "betraying confidences" of world leaders who privately endorsed him. And if it's true, an endorsement from somebody like Chirac wouldn't exactly help Kerry's campaign. I can't think of many world leaders whose endorsement would.

But we know at least one world leader who thinks Kerry would do a great job.