Maybe they -- like me -- intially had some questions about the potential PR problem when the deal was first announced, but had those concerns alleviated when "the PR problem" didn't materialize.
Most people seem to forget that this deal was first announced in public more than two months before the PR nightmare materialized here in ths U.S. When the DPW acquisition of P&O Ports was announced in late November of 2005 and there was no adverse reaction to it from elected officials and other interested parties in the U.S. in December, January, and during the first two weeks of February, there was no reason for anyone to suspect that it would suddenly become a major problem in mid-February.
The biggest mistake the UAE and Bush administration made in this debacle was that they grossly underestimated the abject ignorance and stupidity of people of Chuck Schumer, Peter King, Robert Menendez, and a whole host of people in the media with big mouths and small minds.
Most people seem to forget that this deal was first announced in public more than two months before the PR nightmare materialized here in ths U.S. When the DPW acquisition of P&O Ports was announced in late November of 2005 and there was no adverse reaction to it from elected officials and other interested parties in the U.S. in December, January, and during the first two weeks of February, there was no reason for anyone to suspect that it would suddenly become a major problem in mid-February.
Apparently it took the public time to wake up to the transaction. I follow the news very carefully right here on FR and elsewhere, and I didn't notice it in December. A google search shows the first link regarding this deal was February 8th of 2006
And regarding the PR issue, the deal had an odour. With the right sales job, it mightn't have been a problem.
The idiot democrats simply stepped into a vacuum created by the deal planners when they (and all officials who successively put their stamp of approval on it) failed to visualize how the deal might look from a distance.
Ultimately, it isn't the deal itself that is so troubling as it is the stupidity of all parties surrounding it.