It seems that the German government wasn't willing to turn the "open" meeting into a scripted event, so rather than face the questions of real people, Bush opted to ditch the whole thing. Of course, this never happens in the U.S., because you can be sure every event he ever attends here is planned well in advance to exclude any potentially critical views. This is exactly why our democracy is in trouble: How can a leader "represent" people he won't even talk to?