Must Leader of Pack Know Leader of Pakistan?

George W. Bush has taken some unfair hits lately.

He has been criticized for calling Greeks “Grecians.” He confused Slovenia with Slovakia and referred to Kosovars as “Kosovarians.”

But these are such piddling points.

When he delivers a major foreign-policy speech at the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley later this month, I’d venture that not one person there will hold George W.’s geographical gaffes against him.

The Simians will greet him warmly, I predict--as will the many Venturistas, Oxnardics and Camaroonians who trek across the county for his Nov. 19 appearance.

A major fund-raiser is scheduled Nov. 20 in Thousand Oaks, where the Oakskies and their little acorns will make Bush feel quite at home.

But however warm the Texas governor’s reception will be here in Pismo County, or wherever, the silly attacks will persist.

The latest salvo was fired by a TV interviewer in Boston who gave the likely GOP presidential candidate a spot quiz on world leaders.

Personally, I wouldn’t have had the nerve to ask Bush if he knew the name of Chechnya’s president.

In fact, I can think of only one good answer to “Do you know the name of Chechnya’s president?”

“No, but if you hum a few bars . . .”

So, OK--it’s a terrible answer. But it would have been beyond me, as it was Bush, to respond accurately, as in: “The president of Chechnya is Aslan Maskhadov.”

Smelling blood, the interviewer persisted: What about the leaders of India? Of Pakistan? Of Taiwan?

Bush correctly identified Taiwan’s leader as “Lee”--that is, President Lee Teng-hui. But he scored goose eggs on the others. His bottom line on the surprise quiz was a dismal one out of four.

As embarrassments go, this doesn’t even rate on the Quayle scale of campaign blunders. Americans expect their president to know potato from potatoe but not Maskhadov from Chechnya.

That’s what aides are for, and briefing books. If Bush is elected, he’ll snap his fingers and an intense Ivy Leaguer in a three-piece suit will glide in with a 300-page dossier on any given world official, including job history, family curses, mortal enemies and turn-ons (“Yuri likes cruise missiles and walking on the beach at sunset.”)

So what does it mean that Bush scored poorly on the interviewer’s ham-handed test?

To find out, I asked the same questions of several educated and articulate Ventura County residents.

Chuck Weis, the county superintendent of schools, admitted he had no answers. But, ever the educator, he instantly added, “I know where to look them up.”

Tom Higgins, a Ventura attorney who serves as president of the local chapter of the United Nations Assn. of the U.S., knew only Lee, of Taiwan.

“I also knew it was a General someone in Pakistan,” he said. (That’s Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who recently took power after engineering a coup.)

The Bush interview was an ambush, said Higgins, whose U.N. group counts about 50 members.

“Bush shouldn’t be judged on it,” he said. “You expect a president to have knowledgeable advisors around him. This world-trivia stuff is puerile.”

Bob Porter, a political science instructor at Ventura College, agreed.

“A better question to ask is, ‘What kind of political system does India have?’ ” Porter said. “Otherwise, it’s just like memorizing dates and names. You can ask serious people at Harvard who the president of Madagascar is, and they won’t be able to tell you.”

Porter, whose specialty is Latin America, didn’t do quite as well as Bush.

Neither, for that matter, did I. And I was perfectly content with that until I ran into Ali Ishrat, the owner of Yasmeen’s, an Indian restaurant in Ventura.

In the space of 10 seconds, Ali zoomed to the head of the class and reminded me of how isolated most Americans are from the great, teeming world beyond the reach of our minivans. A native of India, he answered all four questions correctly. He also pointed out that India has outpaced the U.S. in at least one area of democracy by electing female leaders.

“I understand if Bush couldn’t get Chechnya or Pakistan,” Ali said, “but India? If he doesn’t have this much knowledge, I am very sorry.”

For his part, Al Gore issued a statement saying he would have aced the quiz. He didn’t say it, but I believe he might have invented Chechnya.

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Steve Chawkins can be reached at 653-7561 or by e-mail at steve.chawkins@latimes.com.