KEY POINTS:
Helen Clark arrived for her meeting with George Bush at 11am on the dot, in a stretch Cadillac formerly used by Presidents Clinton and Bush. Its armoured doors are so heavy it takes two men in uniform to open them.
The meeting occurred in one of the most critical points of President Bush's second term, when relations with the Congress have dived over conflicts on several fronts.
He begins his day, usually at 7am, with briefings from key advisers such as Karl Rove, the United States' more controversial equivalent of Helen Clark's right-hand woman, Heather Simpson.
The Prime Minister's appointment was placed between the morning briefings and a meeting with a group of award-winning press photographers there to show the President their work: a particularly vicious-looking picture of Speaker and Bush nemesis Nancy Pelosi was likely to take his fancy.
At a quarter to midday the doors of the Oval Office were opened and the media poured in, about 30 in all, some of the New Zealanders fresh from a fight with White House staff about being made to stand behind the Americans.
The Oval Office is much smaller than it appears on the TV show West Wing and the incumbent appears a lot less polished than Martin Sheen, except when he's kidding.
He's a kidder all right. There he sat, in his high black Texan boots and dark blue suit, speaking to lines about the meeting he had just had with Helen Clark. He joked that their conversation had been so good he had decided to invite her for lunch.
She spoke longer than he did and without notes, raising issues such as how much he appreciated New Zealand's contribution to Afghanistan. But it would have sounded more sincere coming from him.
After five minutes and 40 seconds, it was all over. Mr Bush would not take questions. Sensing the deep disappointment of the New Zealanders, he looked at TV3's Duncan Garner, who had started to ask a question anyway, and said: "Nice-lookin' suit you've got there. You're too well dressed."
"It's a New Zealand suit," said Garner.
"Where's the American press? ... Follow suit with this guy, will you?"
But the refusal to answer questions left a major one hanging. President Bush grinned when Helen Clark talked about a free trade agreement. Now we'll never know whether he meant, "fat chance, lady" or "you plucky Kiwis never let a chance go by, do you?"
