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He's done more to restore our image than Bush ever could. I see he couldn't say it to Obama's face though.
World Agenda: Nicolas Sarkozy puts Barack Obama in the doghouse
Why the master of America's new First Mutt is no longer in good odour with President Sarkozy
(Jason Reed/Reuters)
France has been cooing along with everyone else over the arrival of Bo Obama at the White House, but the master of America's new First Dog is no longer in good odour with President Sarkozy.
Mr Sarkozy is pouring cold water on President Obama's efforts to recast American leadership on the world stage, depicting them as unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated. Behind leaks and briefings from the Elysée Palace lies Mr Sarkozy's irritation at the rock-star welcome that Europe gave Mr Obama on his Europan tour earlier this month.
The American President's call "to free the world of the menace of a nuclear nightmare" was hot air, Mr Sarkozy's diplomatic staff told him in a report. "It was rhetoric – not a speech on American security policy but an export model aimed at improving the image of the United States," they said. Most of Mr Obama's proposals had already been made by the Bush administration and Washington was dragging its feet on disarmament and treaties against nuclear proliferation, the leaked report said.
Personal pique and French politics are also behind the souring of Mr Sarkozy's self-promoted honeymoon with the United States. On the personal side, the French President is needled by the adulation for an unproven US leader whose s om has eclipsed what he sees as his established record as a world troubleshooter. "The President is annoyed by what he sees as the naivety and the herd mentality of the media," said a journalist who is privy to Elysée thinking.
Mr Sarkozy has put out a version of the proceedings at the London G20 economic summit which casts him as hero, in the classic French role of intransigent defender of principle in the face of the American steamroller. This is to counter last week's reports of Mr Obama saving the day by persuading President Hu of China to accept Mr Sarkozy's demands for naming tax havens.
According to the leaks, Mr Sarkozy shamed Mr Obama into intervening: "You were elected to build a new world. Tax havens are the embodiment of the old world," he is quoted as saying. He also reprimanded Mr Obama for setting US goals for climate change that were inferior to Europe's, according to his staff.
Again, according to the Sarkozy version, at the Nato summit in Strasbourg, Mr Obama was meekly yielding to Turkey's refusal to endorse Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance's new Secretary-General. It took pressure from Mr Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel of Germany to stiffen him up and change his mind, say the French.
Mr Obama's favour for Ankara has irked but also helped Mr Sarkozy as his Union for a Popular Movement campaigns for European Parliament elections in June. Mr Sarkozy slapped down the US President on French TV after he publicly called for Turkish entry to the European Union.
Permanent refusal of Turkish membership is one of Mr Sarkozy's policy planks and one of his most popular with voters. Mr Obama's venture into EU affairs has enabled Mr Sarkozy to make political capital. He has shown that France can still stand up to the United States despite rejoining the Nato command last week.
It sounded like old Franco-American business as usual this morning when Bruno Le Maire, Mr Sarkozy's Europe Minister, accused Washington of backing the northern and eastern EU members by wanting to turn the union into a mere free-trade zone. France and Germany are sticking to their vision of the "political" Europe that others do not want, he said.
Behind the policy argument, it is easy to detect disappointment over Mr Obama's failure to respond to the Sarkozy charm offensive that began when he befriended the junior senator on a visit to Washington in 2006. Mr Obama showered compliments on France's "hyper-president" in Strasbourg, but the one that has stuck was double-edged: "He is courageous on so many fronts, it's sometimes hard to keep up with him."
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Hmmm - I thought the world loved Obama and that he was restoring our image worldwide...
He's done more to restore our image than Bush ever could. I see he couldn't say it to Obama's face though.
jealousy that spans the globe.
cool
I thought you conservatives hated France? Shouldn't this make you happy?
You're seriously believing the French?
For real, are the French a bunch of pussy, freedom-hating, socialist, swines? Or can they be trusted?
I guess for some heart/brain-less idiots it depends on who the sitting US president is.
Sarkozy googoogaga'd towards Obama during the campaign.
Sarkozy wanted even more of a new world monetary order.
lol France....well, you guys have a pretty cool history so props on that.
But Sarkozy.
No Napoleon, anything that comes out of Lord Obama's mouth is empty rhetoric.The American President's call "to free the world of the menace of a nuclear nightmare" was hot air, Mr Sarkozy's diplomatic staff told him in a report. "It was rhetoric – not a speech on American security policy but an export model aimed at improving the image of the United States,"
Last edited by FaithInOne; 04-15-2009 at 11:12 AM.
Shouldn't you be happy about that? I mean, weren't Republicans bashing Obama for saying we should try to get rid of all nukes?
I concur.
Don't give any weight to what Sarkozy says.
Hmmm - I thought the world loved Obama and that he was restoring our image worldwide...
You heaped scorn with the "
"the world doesn't really love Obama"
The article really said:
"The french president was pissy and jealous BECAUSE the world loves Obama"
Reading comprehension FAIL.
So, are conservatives for or against France?
And Obama's trip was obviously not a complete success on several fronts -- he didn't get everything he wanted out of it -- but it was also far from a complete failure.
Now that the LOLZ have subsided:
The real measure of Obama will be if he an leverage his popularity to get some concrete help in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Republicans might not like him, and might have wished their guy had won, but they cannot dispute the fact that if the Republican party had won the presidency, that would have been taken by the rest of the world, as the American public's approval of Bush.
Republicans might not give a what the rest of the world thinks about the USA, but their opinion DOES matter, when you have to ask for help.
One thing that having a Democratic president now does, especially given Obama's personal narrative, is provide us a much better shot at securing cooperation when it comes to all sorts of things that are in our long-term best interest.
That is teh suck.
Afghanistan is deeply unpopular with most of the European public. It is a race between Obama's charisma and the European dislike of having troops in something they don't feel advances their interests.
For our sake, let's hope Obama's charisma wins that race.
What I find truly hilarious is that Conservatives came out and made this trip out to be an all or nothing trip. No one ever stated that Obama went over there to accomplish 1, 2, 3,4, 5 etc ... Yet the same conservatives who called him the messaih are now coming out and stating that Obama failed. it's easy to be a conservative because you can generalize and never have to provide specifics..
Hmmm - I thought the world loved Obama and that he was restoring our image worldwide...
Crap, I almost forgot my duty as a "dirty lib":
Are you really rooting for the rest of the world to not admire America and its president?
Why do you hate America?
Apologies for the lateness of the standard, knee-jerk response. I'm still not used to it being my turn to ask that question, as opposed to having it asked of me.
Like this, you mean?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is very critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama’s positions on Iran, according to reports that have reached Israel’s government.
Sarkozy has made his criticisms only in closed forums in France. But according to a senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate’s stance on Iran as “utterly immature” and comprised of “formulations empty of all content.”
Obama visited Paris in July, and the Iranian issue was at the heart of his meeting with Sarkozy. At a joint press conference afterward, Obama urged Iran to accept the West’s proposal on its nuclear program, saying that Iran was creating a serious situation that endangered both Israel and the West. According to the reports reaching Israel, Sarkozy told Obama at that meeting that if the new American president elected in November changed his country’s policy toward Iran, that would be “very problematic.”
sounds like sour grapes from Sarkozy and the OP
Obama turned down the "mini-summit" with Sarko after Obama upstaged him at the G-20, and the First Lady put Carla Bruni in the shade.
Bitter much, Sarko?
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