Leader likes Obama's tan, but Italians don't like joke

ROME — Italians never quite know whether to laugh or cry at Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. But many reacted with incredulity and outrage after the prime minister, visiting Moscow on Thursday, amiably called the first African-American president-elect in U.S. history "young, handsome and sun-tanned."

Berlusconi made the remark while meeting President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia, saying that Sen. Barack Obama's good looks, his youth and his so-called suntan were "all the qualities" for Medvedev and the future president to "develop a good working relationship."

Many Italian newspapers gave the comment nearly as much front-page attention as Obama's victory itself. Journalist Curzio Maltese wrote in the center-left La Repubblica that "bookmakers wouldn't even take bets" on how long it would take for Berlusconi to let slip another of his famous gaffes.

"Mr. Berlusconi never fails to live up to our worst expectations."

A billionaire populist, Berlusconi said that his remark had been "a compliment" and that his critics lacked irony.

"If you want to get a degree in idiocy, I won't stop you," La Repubblica quoted him as saying. "I say whatever I think."

He said the Italian left was wrong about everything, "including their lack of a sense of humor." He added: "Too bad for them. God save us from imbeciles."

The episode raised a question: Why, of all the problems Italy is facing, would Berlusconi get more attention for his off-the-cuff remark than for his political program?

"Because it's the last straw," said a political commentator, Beppe Severgnini.

"By now, Berlusconi isn't a political case; he's a psychological case."

Berlusconi's remark "wasn't racist; it was infantile and untimely," he added. "He has such a high opinion of himself that he thinks it's acceptable to say anything to anyone."

On Friday, Italy's leading daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera, ran an illustrated display of Berlusconi's most infamous gaffes. In 2002, he said that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark was "so handsome I'm thinking of introducing him to my wife."