Europe Still Likes Obama, but Doubts Creep In

President Nicolas Sarkozy, center, before chiding President Obama on Iran in a speech at the United Nations in September. France wants no deal that would let Iran keep enriching uranium.

Is it principled, or is its opposition because France wants part of the business?

The election of Barack Obama as president seemed to most Europeans to be unadulterated good news, marking an end to the perceived unilateralism and indifference to allied views of former President George W. Bush.

But nine months into Mr. Obama’s presidency, trans-Atlantic relations are again clouded by doubts. Europe and the United States remain at least partly out of sync on Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran and climate change.

Every love affair is bound to cool.

Many Europeans argue that Mr. Obama has not broken clearly enough with Bush administration policies that they dislike, while some Americans argue that the Europeans are too passive, watching Mr. Obama struggle with difficult issues, like Afghanistan and the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, without providing much substantive help.

Europeans are good at lecturing, at passing judgment, and at self-glorification.

Mr. Obama remains popular with the European public, but a senior European official said that he was worried about an underlying disaffection. “It’s dangerous, because we must not get into a spiral of dissatisfaction on both sides,” he said. These generalizations lack real substance, he said, but the criticism runs that “the U.S. thinks that Europeans don’t want to do anything to help and the Europeans feel that the U.S. is naïve and not delivering enough.”

Naive? Seems a ridiculous criticism, really.

“Europeans are sitting around waiting for Washington to decide what the Afghanistan policy is going to be,” he said.

They are waiting for the US to decide.

A lot of the problem is the fault of the Europeans themselves, said Hubert Védrine, a former French foreign minister. “Europe for Obama is not a priority, not a problem and not a solution for his problems,” he said in an interview here. “Obama keeps a distance and has a kind of hauteur” with European leaders, Mr. Védrine said. “But that’s not a sufficient reason for Europeans to act like spectators” as Mr. Obama tries to cope with his challenges. “I think it’s necessary to help him,” he said.

[Ed: hauteur: arrogance: overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors]

In a report to be published on Monday, the European Council on Foreign Relations, an independent research group, urged European Union governments to shake off illusions about the trans-Atlantic relationship if they wanted to avoid global irrelevance.

The United States “needs strong partners in a world it no longer dominates,” the authors say, and while it would prefer a more united European Union, which can articulate and put into practice its own strategic interests, Washington no longer expects to see it. When the European Union is united and strong, as on trade matters, Washington listens, the report says; when it is split, as over Russia and many other foreign and defense issues, where national governments act individually, “Europeans are asking to be divided and ruled.”

While Mr. Obama is personally sympathetic and even “European” in his policy choices, the report argues, “Europeans miss the implications of the self-avowed pragmatism” of his administration, which wants “to work with whoever will most effectively help it achieve the outcomes it desires.”

News today

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Doctors’ Group Opposes Public Insurance Plan Opposition by the American Medical Association could be a hurdle for advocates of a government-sponsored insurance plan.

A Paris Plan, Less Grand Than Gritty France’s president has scaled back his ambition to redesign Paris, but still plans to improve the city’s transportation and housing stock.

Videos Reveal Sotomayor’s Positions on Affirmative Action and Other Issues

U.S. Saw Problems on the Way at Merrill
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U.S. Pushes a Troubled Citigroup to Heal Itself
As other banks prepare to exit the bailout program, the government is tightening its grip on Citigroup, calling for change at the bank.

Fiat Deal With Chrysler Seals Swift 42-Day Overhaul
The speed with which the automaker’s restructuring plan swept through the court system was seen as an important victory for the Obama administration.

Queen Elizabeth Is Fuming

Queen Elizabeth is not amused.

As Dorothy Parker might have said, how can you tell? Kidding.

Indeed, she is decidedly displeased, angry even, that she was not invited to join President Obama and France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, next week at commemorations of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, according to reports published in Britain’s mass-circulation tabloid newspapers on Wednesday. Pointedly, Buckingham Palace did not deny the reports.

The queen, who is 83, is the only living head of state who served in uniform during World War II. As Elizabeth Windsor, service number 230873, she volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in support roles in England.

While serving, she met the supreme Allied commander for the D-Day landings, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, and developed a fondness for him, according to several biographies. This prompted Queen Elizabeth, who was crowned in June 1953, to say in later years that he was the American president with whom she felt most at ease.

How the queen came to be excluded has become entangled in a thicket of diplomatic missteps, or misunderstandings, depending on whether the account is given in London or Paris. The French have said officially that they regard the commemorations in the American sector of the landings as “primarily a Franco-American ceremony,” and that it was up to the British to decide who should represent Britain — in other words, that Mr. Brown was at fault for not seeking an invitation for the queen.

He did it. As if Brown needs any more problems.

In Britain, commentators have suggested that Mr. Sarkozy did not want to share the telegenic moment when he hosts Mr. Obama. This was all the more so, the British commentators have said, because the queen’s presence might risk turning the occasion into a celebration of the Anglo-American alliance, whose troops carried out the landings, losing about 37,000 men in the battle for Normandy.

Sarko never has met a camera he didn't like.

Sarko: a punch line

Amid France’s Woes, Satirists Turn to Sarkozy, as a Punch Line Comedians’ growing boldness is a sign of unhappiness with the government as it struggles with rising unemployment and worker anger.

In a time of economic crisis, and in the absence of effective political opposition, there is derision — of those in power, especially the king. That is not to say that revolution is around the corner, but simply that humor punctures power and helps to cure a sense of powerlessness.

Laughter can be good medicine.

This elected king, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, with his aggressive personality, is a seemingly endless fount of material for the satirists, whose increasing boldness is a sign of deeper unhappiness with the government as it struggles with rising unemployment and worker anger.

“We comedians are lucky to have someone colorful and easy to caricature, a little like American comedians with George Bush,” said Stéphane Guillon, one of the fiercest satirists now working in France. “Sarkozy is a godsend for comedians, and if I exaggerate I should say that Sarko is a treasure chest of blunders all by himself. I really don’t know how to thank him.”

What with his body language (although that might be so French the French don't find it funny, still it seems so rich a lode to mine), his pronouncements and his arrogance, he seems, well, easy to caricature.

Mr. Sarkozy has brought an unrestrained crassness to the presidency that has unleashed comedians, Mr. Guillon said.

Unrestrained crassness; interesting term.

Mr. Guillon tried to explain what he portrayed as Mr. Sarkozy’s obsession with President Obama this way: “It’s kind of understandable. For months, Sarkozy was the leader of Europe. Of the world even. And now he’s forced to be just the president of France. I hope we’ll be good enough for him.” After six months of dealing with the Middle East and the Caucasus, “now he has to try to resolve our little problems of losers, unemployment, social security. “You get the feeling we’re annoying him sometimes.”

A, Sarko

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy. French anti-corruption activists are trying to prod the justice system into questioning how the leaders of Gabon, Congo Republic and Equatorial Guinea and their families could afford to acquire assets worth tens of millions of euros in France

Quite an expression.

Three Africa leaders to account for wealth in France

Barack’s Continental Coolness

If nothing else, the president’s trip overseas helped resolve the longstanding question of who can be more irritating, the Republicans or the French.

I think that's an easy one, but, that's just me, I suppose.

Back home, we’re just grateful that we don’t have to sit on the edge of our collective seats wondering how the president will embarrass us next. No more worrying that our chief executive might surprise Angela Merkel with a come-from-behind massage or fall in love with the president of Russia when their eyes meet across a crowded room.

W looked inot Vlad's eyes, and, biy, was he wrong.

In London, Obama was the most popular guy in the gang. When President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and China’s Hu Jintao got into a squabble, Obama took them off to separate corners and resolved the conflict, to universal applause. True, it only required switching the word “recognizing” to “note,” but in diplomatic circles, that’s what cool is all about.

Kudos to the American prez.

And then it was off to France, where the Michelle-mania spiked as the first lady and her French counterpart, the former fashion model Carla Bruni, went outfit-to-outfit. They both had bows on their coats! The wardrobe commentary was, to be honest, a bit much. However, perhaps we should be grateful to the wives for changing their clothes so frequently. It took our minds off the unemployment figures and allowed the news media to avoid having to cover the discussions on special drawing rights.

Before the summit began, Sarkozy had threatened to walk out unless he got his way on financial regulation. (When considering our French-versus-Republican contest, note that they both like to go into negotiations announcing that whatever happens, the answer is no.) But once Obama and he got together, the French leader said that despite their differences, his American counterpart was still “entirely in line with whatwe want.”

Sarko was blowing hot air, but Barack is too cool for that.

To be fair, the French, the Germans and the other heel-dragging countries have some reason to be dubious about getting too close to Obama in anything but a photo op. The Europeans don’t really trust American presidents to deliver on what they say, particularly if it has to go through Congress.

Democracy does have a cost.

While the G-20 was finishing its business, members of Congress were showing how they did theirs by passing a budget resolution. The spending plan was somewhat smaller than the president had requested. The Senate also added the Republican priority of reducing taxes on people who inherit estates of $7 million or more — a move that would increase the deficit while stimulating the economy approximately as much as eliminating a sales tax on square potato chips.

So the Dems agreed to reduce taxes on estates of more than $7 million, which, one supposes, is middle-class tax relief (in some sense).

But even so, not a single Republican voted yes on the budget. In the House, the G.O.P. came up with an alternative that would cut more taxes for the wealthy while clamping down on nondefense spending. House Republicans think we invest way too much on these government programs and try to cut back on them every single year that their party is not actually in power.

And the Republicans, with a Republican priority inserted into the budget, voted no.

In the Senate, Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire predicted that the budget plan “will absolutely put this country on an unsustainable path.” This would be the same Judd Gregg who agreed to join the Obama cabinet as commerce secretary before a last-minute discovery that the president is a Democrat.

Absolutely? Is this a Republican who supported George W. Bush for eight years of unrestrained spending, much of it off the budget?

Actually, it’s no contest when you think about it. The French aren’t even in the ballpark.

Sarko's moment finally comes

El Universal has this picture, and the caption that reads that France will accept prisoners from Guantánamo.
















Sarko's moment finally came. After months of frustration during which the White House stayed cool to the entreaties of the French President, Barack Obama stood alongside Nicolas Sarkozy today and showered him with praise.

You could feel the joy radiating from Sarko as the pair proclaimed a new era of Franco-American unity on the steps of the Palais des Rohan, the old bishop's palace in Strasbourg.

After an hour's tête-à-tête, his first with the new US President, Sarkozy struck an unusually solemn and statesmanlike tone as he opened their joint press conference referring to "The President of the United States" and addressing "President Obama" with the formal 'vous'. But Sarko's excitable nature got the better of him and he closed trembling with emotion, using the the intimate "tu" and calling him "une sacrée bonne nouvelle" -- bloody good news -- for the world.

Bloody good, mate.

Sarko being Sarko, he could also not resist chucking a couple of stones in the direction of his former great friend George W. Bush. He contrasted, without naming him, Bush's closed, America-centric outlook with Obama's open-minded model and talked about the "terrorist methods" which the Bush team had used on the detainees of Guantanamo Bay.

W is yesterday's news.

It was fascinating watching the pair: Obama grave, measured and still alongside the much shorter, energetic and punchy French leader. The monolingual Sarkozy also ventured timidly into English, saying "okay" to US journalists several times.

Merveilleux!

Obama was greeted like a hero by the crowds that were allowed to get close to him as the French security forces locked down the deserted centre of Strasbourg. While their husbands were doing business, Carla Bruni lunched with Michelle Obama and showed her around town. Bruni stayed away from London as the US First Lady took the spotlight, but the Elysée Palace is deploying her in Strasbourg as a sure bet for enhancing Sarko's moment in the sun.

To end, the Elysée is delighted by the Francophiles in Obama's entourage. General James Jones, his National Security Adviser, grew up in France as the son of a US marine officer and attended a lycée in the Paris suburb of Saint Germain-en-Laye. He always talks in French with Jean-David Levitte, Sarkozy's foreign affairs director. Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser to Vice-President Biden, also studied at a Paris Lycée and Sciences-Po, the top political science college. Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, is an academic France expert who translated the US edition of Testimony, the manifesto-memoir that Sarkozy's published during his 2007 campaign.

Emphasis added. I wonder, does Sernator Shelby know about all these Francophiles in the Administration?

Protocol is abandoned as Michelle Obama cosies up to Queen

From the London Times, this story:

Protocol seems to be dispensed with when the Obamas come to town.

When the President and his wife, Michelle, attended a reception at Buckingham Palace, the First Lady and the Queen slipped their arms around each other towards the end of the evening.

It is usually a breach of protocol to touch the Queen. But as the two women stood side by side, chatting about their height difference, she put her hand on the back of Mrs Obama, who did the same for a few moments. Before she departed, Mrs Obama told the Queen: “I really enjoyed our meeting.”

Breaching Royal protocol has left visiting digintaries and statesmen in hot water in the past. When the former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating put his arm around the Queen in 1992, he was branded the “Lizard of Oz”. When his successor, John Howard, was accused of doing the same, a spokesman insisted: “We firmly deny that there was any contact whatsoever.”

The warm conclusion to the Obamas' Royal meeting was matched by the rest of the US President's engagement, which was both informal and affectionate.

Mr Obama had earlier disclosed that the Queen was top of the list of things he likes about Britain, praising her “decency and civility” as important matters to people in the United States.

When they met last night, Mr Obama was heard to say to her: “Thank you so much for having us.”

Addressing the Duke of Edinburgh, he added: “It’s a wonderful honour,” and then described his day. “I had breakfast with the Prime Minister, I had meetings with the Chinese, the Russians and David Cameron,” he said.

Appearing to refer to his jetlag, he won laughter from his hosts as he added: “I’m proud to say I did not nod off in any of the meetings.”

The Duke laughed and asked: “Can you tell the difference between them?” The President waved a hand and joked: “It’s all a blur.”

The 20-minute meeting was held before the reception for world leaders in the Palace’s picture gallery.

The long room, with its arched roof, buzzed with conversation as the politicians, their aides and other members of their entourage chatted.

The Queen held court in the middle of the event, which despite the formality of the setting was designed to be informal. A large number of the Royal Family had joined them, including the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke of York and Princess Beatrice.

At one point, the Queen chatted for a few moments with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian leader, as a few inches away the French President Nicolas Sarkozy held an animated discussion, through an interpreter, with Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State.

The world leaders sipped white and red wine and champagne in front of Old Master paintings worth millions.

For those who wanted something to eat, minuscule canapes were served by catering staff. The selection included chicken with courgette on skewers, mini Cornish pasties, smoked quails’ eggs, foie gras and tiny rolls of duck filled with melon.

As the drinks reception drew to a close, the politicians were ushered into the Palace’s ornate Throne Room for a group photograph with the Queen to mark the occasion.

A Palace official told the dignitaries to pose for four frames. The Queen then made a quip that made the whole group laugh: “It has to be a happy photo,” she said.

Presents were exchanged between the Queen and Mr and Mrs Obama. The US President gave the Queen an iPod containing a video of her visit to Virginia, Washington, in 2007. In return, he received a silver-framed, signed photograph of the royal couple.

What's up, Sarko?

Economic weakness is leading to a recession, even in Europe.

The signs of economic caution are everywhere here, including even a sudden drop in the sale of bottled water.

Now, that's serious.

Trying to counteract fears of higher unemployment as the economy slows, Mr. Sarkozy announced a new program of subsidized work contracts, warned companies not to make unjustified layoffs and promised to loosen restrictions on short-term job contracts and Sunday work.

Warned companies to not lay people off unjustifiably? What a novel idea. As Sarko presses to make inroads, to prevent the recession from deepening, others remain skeptical.

The Socialist he beat for the presidency, Ségolène Royal, said Tuesday that “with a new plan practically every two days,” Mr. Sarkozy had “a credibility problem.” At the very least, she said, “we must pay attention that each plan announced should start before announcing the next.”

And other major states, especially Germany, are skeptical about his intentions. They believe that Mr. Sarkozy, who has often excoriated the Central Bank for its focus on limiting inflation, wants to sharply increase the size of France’s budget deficit — despite European Union restrictions — to stimulate an economy considered to be in recession and to create jobs.

Imagine him wanting to stimulate an economy; what a radical idea. Still, Sarko is something of a loose cannon.

Recent pronouncements by Mr. Sarkozy have rubbed the Germans and the British the wrong way, in part because he has reverted to an old habit of acting without consulting his allies. Quite unusually for Europe, Mr. Sarkozy has also called other leaders to summit meetings on extremely short notice, sometimes just a day, a senior European diplomat said, causing consternation and confusion. Mr. Sarkozy’s relations with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, have deteriorated again, diplomats and French officials say, over both his lack of consultation and his efforts to pressure the European Central Bank.

Then again, he is bold. That can cut two ways, but action is certainly needed, and it would be better to act sooner rather than later.

In particular, Mr. Sarkozy has called for two European initiatives that have been widely criticized. The first is a European Union sovereign fund to protect the ownership of important business with suddenly low stock prices. The other is a “unified economic government” of the European Union that would bring the heads of state together on economic issues, and not just the finance ministers.Mr. Sarkozy argues that leaders must lead, and that with the Czech Republic and then Sweden, neither of which uses the euro, taking over the European Union presidency in 2009, Europe’s ability to deal with the global financial crisis will be reduced.

There's one of those European anomalies: countries that are in the EU but do not use the euro. And why not sovereign funds?


President Nicolas Sarkozy of France passed a mirror after delivering a speech on employment measures on Tuesday.

Sarko greets Bam

Obamania continues.

Senator Barack Obama arrived at the Elysee Palace on Friday afternoon, stepping out of a black sedan in the stately courtyard and walking up to greet French President Nicolas Sarkozy who stood in the palace doorway.

“The French love the Americans,” Mr. Sarkozy said, smiling affectionately at the senator as the two walked into a press conference following a private meeting here. He showered praise upon Mr. Obama, adding: “The French have been following him with passion.”

The French love the Americans? My, how times have changed.
The Illinois senator said he had not meant to snub France, by spending only a few hours in the country Friday during his whistle-stop tour. "I don't know anybody who doesn't want to spend more time in Paris"

Mr. Sarkozy said he would work with whomever becomes the next American leader, adding: “Of course it’s not up to the French to choose the next president of the United States of America.” But he said that “Barack Obama’s adventure is an adventure that rings true in the hearts and minds” of the French people.

It was an unusual site for a Democratic presidential candidate to be standing side-by-side with a French president. Four years ago, Senator John Kerry spent months fighting back impressions that he appeared too French – even though he wasn’t – and conservative commentators used to create a caricature that likely affected his candidacy.