Nicolas Sarkozy, Bush's new First Buddy
By Toby Harnden in Washington
15/08/2007
The Telegraph
Zut alors! Sarko bleu! The Sarkozys in New England, who decided they liked America so much they have visited it twice this summer, have been the gift that keeps on giving for headline writers labouring through the dog days of August (in the US and Britain, that is. In France no-one is working).
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown dissed his annual holiday destination of Cape Cod in favour of a couple of days in Dorset. He had already maintained a sang-froid that bordered on the frosty at Camp David as he opted for a dark suit rather than chinos, and parried George W Bush's joshing by addressing him as "Mr President".
But there has been no holding back Nicolas Sarkozy, or "Sarko L'Americain", as he is dismissed with a Gallic sniff on the left bank of the Seine. He headed to the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire for a sojourn at the luxury pad of a former Microsoft executive.
We have been treated to Sarko the Jogger, stepping out with an entourage of seven while listening to Elvis on his iPod. There has been Sarko the Statesman, jetting back for the funeral of the Archbishop of Paris before returning to the Great Satan to field questions about selling arms to Libya.
And Bush greeted Sarko the First Buddy - a title, uncontested by Gordon Brown, that has been up for grabs since Tony Blair stepped down - at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Sarkozy, who pitched up in jeans for a lunch of hot dogs, hamburgers and blueberry pie, played the part to perfection.
Then there was Sarko the Scorned, after his long-suffering wife Cécilia pulled a Cherie Blair by crying off the Bush pow-wow, claiming a sore throat - only to be spotted out shopping the next day. Not forgetting, of course, Sarko the He-man, angrily berating paparazzi who had the temerity to snap him in his swimming togs.
Phew. One wonders whether the French President managed any relaxation between all the antics. But down-time is seldom the real point of a politician's holiday.
Bill Clinton famously went on a hiking and camping holiday in Wyoming after his pollster Dick Morris told him this would go down much better with swing voters than hobnobbing in Martha's Vineyard.
Afterwards, a president who had clearly not enjoyed his time roughing it in a conservative state that has since become synonymous with Vice-President Dick Cheney berated Morris. "That's the first vacation I've taken that didn't help me in the polls," he grumbled.
Bush (who, at 418 days and counting, is poised to become the most-holidayed president since Reagan, who scored 436) used to shun Kennebunkport, with its liberal elite trappings, in favour of his Texas ranch. Now that he is on the way out, reminding voters of his blue-blood New England heritage no longer matters.
Whether Clinton - who, to the dismay of White House aides, dropped by to see Brown at New York's Waldorf Astoria last month - advised the Prime Minister about his Dorset holiday choice is unclear. But the message that Brown was seeking to deliver to anti-Bush Labourites was not.
Equally, for Sarkozy, heading for Wolfeboro - named after General James Wolfe, who defeated the French in Quebec - was an elegant way of flipping the bird to his critics.
And he is pushing at an open door in America, where his election was greeted by Republicans as a sign that conservatives could still win at the polls despite being hampered by an unpopular incumbent from the same party. Maybe, Frogbashers conceded, France wasn't just the Oldest Enemy after all.
Gone are the days when Freedom fries instead of French fries were served in Capitol Hill cafeterias.
Congressman Bob Ney, who introduced the change in culinary lingo after the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and "axis of weasel" betrayed Bush over Iraq, is now in jail after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
John Kerry, who had to answer to charges from Bush apparatchiks in 2004 that he "looks French", is forgotten. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney - who keeps a home on Lake Winnipesaukee and was a Mormon missionary in Bordeaux and Paris - has even dared to speak French on the campaign trail.
Even French wine consumption in America, which dropped by 26 per cent after a boycott following the Iraq invasion, is on the rise again.
It would all be enough to encourage Bush and Sarkozy to raise a glass of Châteauneuf-du-Pape to toast an Entente Cordiale. Except, of course, that Bush's drink was always bourbon and both men are now teetotal.
READERS' COMMENTS
Don't knock Sarko - he has much to do and he is the man to do it.
In this famously secular country of France, today is Assumption Day and everything is shut - and I mean everything.
Much as I love this country, their propensity for stopping work at the drop of a hat is amazing and very annoying.
The number of religious holidays is extraordinary, whilst the churches are as empty as in Britain.
Some of the larger supermarkets boasted about being open this morning until 12.30 - so that the locals could fill their fridges for the 'celebration' and then eat and booze the day away. Nothing wrong with that - except that it's a Wednesday for goodness sake!
Posted by Graham King (Brit in France)
*************************
This new friendship will fall apart the minute France is reqested to send troops in.
Posted by EX-BRAT
*************************
What a turn up for the books. Mitterand and Bush mixed like white wine and oxtail. Now it's bordeaux and steak.
Bush is going to get desperate for friends. Mind you Zarkoma is not such a blot on the landscape. Mitterand was a boorish snob whose allusion to French superiority on all matters of cultural and political savoir faire made him the parodical Frenchman.
Posted by Andy
***********************
I like Sarko. The rest of France is still on hold. They'll have to purge themselves of those kooky socialists or they'll be circling the drain before too long.
Posted by Fernandez
telegraph.co.uk
By Toby Harnden in Washington
15/08/2007
The Telegraph
Zut alors! Sarko bleu! The Sarkozys in New England, who decided they liked America so much they have visited it twice this summer, have been the gift that keeps on giving for headline writers labouring through the dog days of August (in the US and Britain, that is. In France no-one is working).
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown dissed his annual holiday destination of Cape Cod in favour of a couple of days in Dorset. He had already maintained a sang-froid that bordered on the frosty at Camp David as he opted for a dark suit rather than chinos, and parried George W Bush's joshing by addressing him as "Mr President".
But there has been no holding back Nicolas Sarkozy, or "Sarko L'Americain", as he is dismissed with a Gallic sniff on the left bank of the Seine. He headed to the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire for a sojourn at the luxury pad of a former Microsoft executive.
We have been treated to Sarko the Jogger, stepping out with an entourage of seven while listening to Elvis on his iPod. There has been Sarko the Statesman, jetting back for the funeral of the Archbishop of Paris before returning to the Great Satan to field questions about selling arms to Libya.
And Bush greeted Sarko the First Buddy - a title, uncontested by Gordon Brown, that has been up for grabs since Tony Blair stepped down - at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Sarkozy, who pitched up in jeans for a lunch of hot dogs, hamburgers and blueberry pie, played the part to perfection.
Then there was Sarko the Scorned, after his long-suffering wife Cécilia pulled a Cherie Blair by crying off the Bush pow-wow, claiming a sore throat - only to be spotted out shopping the next day. Not forgetting, of course, Sarko the He-man, angrily berating paparazzi who had the temerity to snap him in his swimming togs.
Phew. One wonders whether the French President managed any relaxation between all the antics. But down-time is seldom the real point of a politician's holiday.
Bill Clinton famously went on a hiking and camping holiday in Wyoming after his pollster Dick Morris told him this would go down much better with swing voters than hobnobbing in Martha's Vineyard.
Afterwards, a president who had clearly not enjoyed his time roughing it in a conservative state that has since become synonymous with Vice-President Dick Cheney berated Morris. "That's the first vacation I've taken that didn't help me in the polls," he grumbled.
Bush (who, at 418 days and counting, is poised to become the most-holidayed president since Reagan, who scored 436) used to shun Kennebunkport, with its liberal elite trappings, in favour of his Texas ranch. Now that he is on the way out, reminding voters of his blue-blood New England heritage no longer matters.
Whether Clinton - who, to the dismay of White House aides, dropped by to see Brown at New York's Waldorf Astoria last month - advised the Prime Minister about his Dorset holiday choice is unclear. But the message that Brown was seeking to deliver to anti-Bush Labourites was not.
Equally, for Sarkozy, heading for Wolfeboro - named after General James Wolfe, who defeated the French in Quebec - was an elegant way of flipping the bird to his critics.
And he is pushing at an open door in America, where his election was greeted by Republicans as a sign that conservatives could still win at the polls despite being hampered by an unpopular incumbent from the same party. Maybe, Frogbashers conceded, France wasn't just the Oldest Enemy after all.
Gone are the days when Freedom fries instead of French fries were served in Capitol Hill cafeterias.
Congressman Bob Ney, who introduced the change in culinary lingo after the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and "axis of weasel" betrayed Bush over Iraq, is now in jail after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
John Kerry, who had to answer to charges from Bush apparatchiks in 2004 that he "looks French", is forgotten. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney - who keeps a home on Lake Winnipesaukee and was a Mormon missionary in Bordeaux and Paris - has even dared to speak French on the campaign trail.
Even French wine consumption in America, which dropped by 26 per cent after a boycott following the Iraq invasion, is on the rise again.
It would all be enough to encourage Bush and Sarkozy to raise a glass of Châteauneuf-du-Pape to toast an Entente Cordiale. Except, of course, that Bush's drink was always bourbon and both men are now teetotal.
READERS' COMMENTS
Don't knock Sarko - he has much to do and he is the man to do it.
In this famously secular country of France, today is Assumption Day and everything is shut - and I mean everything.
Much as I love this country, their propensity for stopping work at the drop of a hat is amazing and very annoying.
The number of religious holidays is extraordinary, whilst the churches are as empty as in Britain.
Some of the larger supermarkets boasted about being open this morning until 12.30 - so that the locals could fill their fridges for the 'celebration' and then eat and booze the day away. Nothing wrong with that - except that it's a Wednesday for goodness sake!
Posted by Graham King (Brit in France)
*************************
This new friendship will fall apart the minute France is reqested to send troops in.
Posted by EX-BRAT
*************************
What a turn up for the books. Mitterand and Bush mixed like white wine and oxtail. Now it's bordeaux and steak.
Bush is going to get desperate for friends. Mind you Zarkoma is not such a blot on the landscape. Mitterand was a boorish snob whose allusion to French superiority on all matters of cultural and political savoir faire made him the parodical Frenchman.
Posted by Andy
***********************
I like Sarko. The rest of France is still on hold. They'll have to purge themselves of those kooky socialists or they'll be circling the drain before too long.
Posted by Fernandez
telegraph.co.uk