When is an endorsement not in any way useful?

When it is from Silvio Berlusconi, as this wonderfully acidic piece of writing from The Guardian:

Tony Blair's bid for the presidency of Europe may have been struggling to make headway, but today it hit a rock when he won the endorsement he must secretly have been dreading.

In a letter published in an Italian newspaper, Silvio Berlusconi threw his less than colossal moral authority behind his old friend's candidacy. The man who promised to put Britain "at the heart of Europe", but chose to stay out of the euro and maintain border controls, had "all his papers in order to become the first president of the European council [of ministers] under the terms of the Lisbon treaty", the Italian prime minister declared.

It is this sort of endorsement that could really sink Blair's bid to become EU President. So I'm hoping that Berlusconi's backing damages Blair's bid badly, and I also am desperately hoping for another, even more damaging endorsement for Blair. Wouldn't it be just wonderful if George W Bush stepped forward, and said that he too wanted Blair to become EU President...