Sarkozy: mark him unimpressed with Obama
And here we thought Obama was going to make the Europeans love us again—for the first time since VE day, which was a temporary anomaly anyway.
But no; French President Sarkozy is clearly alarmed at what he hears from the US President. Maybe the problem began with Obama’s flat-footed letter to Chirac back in March, which reportedly upset and annoyed Sarkozy (Obama’s overtures to European leaders in general have seemed oddly tone-deaf, including his bizarre gifts).
But if Sarkozy’s animosity towards Obama began on a more trivial (albeit personal) note, now the President of France has something to sink his teeth into—Obama’s recent Neville Chamberlain impression at the UN General Assembly:
Obama: “We must never stop until we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished from the face of the earth.”
Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”
The rest of Sarkozy’s remarks were, well, remarkable:
“President Obama dreams of a world without weapons ”¦ but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.
“Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993.
“I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,” he continued, referring to Israel.
The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama’s resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy.
“If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said.
Mr Sarkozy has previously called the US president’s disarmament crusade “naive.”
As several commenters on the BigGovernment thread about Sarkozy’s remarks have noted, it’s a sad day when the French leader has more cojones (and more sense) than the American President.
To put a bit of salt in the wound, the French embassy in Washington has now published the full text of the Sarkozy speech, including the comment that “we live in a real world, not a virtual world.”
http://ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article1432
To judge by a quick search of Google News, our media have done a pretty good job of burying this, just as they buried M. Sarkozy’s comments when they were reported in the UK’s “Daily Telegraph”. http://tinyurl.com/y9javec
The blogosphere, however, appears to be on the case. Blogger Jules Crittenden’s exact comment was : “It’s a sad state of affairs when a Frenchman mocks an American president and you have to go with the Frog.”
http://tinyurl.com/ydwks3v
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“Quatorze points, mais cela est un peu fort. Le bon Dieu n’en avait que dix.”
(“Fourteen points: that’s a bit much. The good lord had no more than ten.”)
– Georges Clemenceau
I suspect the growing antipathy between Obama and EU leaders, Brown, Sarkozy, (Merkel?) has much to do with Obama’s going all Alpha (well, as Alpha as the sylphlike metrosexual can manage) when he’s around them. His inferiority complex doesn’t flare up when he’s around other such overcompensating complexes, Hugo Ché¡vez for example. I don’t see the relationships getting any better. EU leaders will not only react as Sarkozy has to Obama’s naiveté, and Brown to Obama’s seemingly personal antipathy to him, but well might come to realize the real danger of Obama’s foreign policy — that he has none, other than talk and hope.
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The European leaders may have thought that Bush was crude and impetuous, but they probably never thought he was a wuss. As Neo said, it’s a sad day when a French leader has to tell an American president to man up.
Amen, Mr. Frank.
What I find funny is that, despite Europe’s supposed hate of America, what I am sensing from several readings (not necessarily selective ones either), is that the hate was more of a routine than a genuine thing. I am not sure Sarkozy is standing up in place of ‘the president’ as much as he is trying to help him remember his lines. He knows this guy is beyond amateur, but I don’t think he thought it was this bad. He must be thinking, how bad is it when I have to play the bad cop part so that the whole dog and pony show doesn’t collapse. America is supposed to take the lead, not follow like an untrained school girl at her first dance! We might all be in serious trouble if this continues.
Expect more European leaders, with any sense, to begin filling in for the empty suit. The problem is, they do not have anything to back up the brass man-ornaments. But it was an surprise to me too. I really thought most of them were quite serious about the *hate, it was just business.
*actually simply political dislike, though there is some of that other…
The only bigger blowhards than the Democrats are (most of) the Europeans, it must be a shock to encounter Obungler and feel like they’re looking in a mirror. Worst of all there is the realization that, with America becoming europeanized, they need to seriously contemplate protecting themselves. You can’t do that in a nasty world, and play smug socialist, there just isn’t enough money to do both well, or even adequately. Every socialist country has proven that historically, most of them are borderline slums at best, with negligible world-class military capability. One other thing, there is the perception that Obungler is only incompetent; not so, he’s a dedicated revolutionary, but of the white collar crime variety….
“sylphlike metrosexual” That’s funny. Very good.
Unfortunately it’s the only funny thing in this sad sordid saga. Not only is Iran spitting in our face, but Venezuela and even Brazil are now making noises about acquiring ‘nuclear capability’.
Another possible side benefit of the sylphlike metrosexual’s continuing failure of leadership might be a re-militarization of Europe if European leaders continue to see a failure of American leadership and perceive their own survival might be at stake. (Hint: it is) That is every bit as scary, if not more so, than islamicists or fanatical shia.
I’d like to see Europe sour on another Democrat but I’ve seen this play out before with Clinton. Clinton was razzed by the Euros as a callow politician at first. Ultimately though they embraced him as one of their own. I suspect the same will be true with Obonga.
“As several commenters on the BigGovernment thread about Sarkozy’s remarks have noted, it’s a sad day when the French leader has more cojones (and more sense) than the American President.”
Perhaps, but Sarkozy is no run-of-the-mill French leader, either…