Comment by Entree on Friday, Jun 6 at 11:49 AM

@ Allen: Jean-Jacques Rousseau was NOT FRENCH, he was a Swiss. And the Black migrants that you are referring to are usually illegal immigrants who are causing problems all over the Mediterranean World, not just in France but in the Arab World and Italy and Spain etc.

Comment by Pierre on Wednesday, Feb 27 at 05:55 PM

I want to make France more like the United States is an unpopular message in France, so I think this only plays on the perception that the United Staters have of France, not on the substance of the relations and not on the French culture. I am not sure the French care so much about the private life of Sarkozy. It is mostly the press which take this as a story to sell papers. However, the French care much about the public image of the President, how he behave in public and as a political figure. To see a president who speaks and act like a "wild" self-made parvenu and sometimes like a bully is not well seen. By wanting to "democratise" and popularize the image of the President he is unfortunaltely diminishing the symbolic figure of the President. This is not the case in the US, where the President still has a very high symbolic stature. In that sense he is not taking the US as a model. He is rather taking the private enterprise as a model. He acts and mostly talks like a bold businessman, without having really the power to move France as an entreprise. This is why he does not walk the talk. He does not have the power he pretends to have and does not have really the power of persuasion since he is to much a lonesome rider. I find it strange this idea that France would want to define itself essentially vis-a-vis the US. I can understand that for English Canada to a certain degree but France !? Does the US define itself vis-a-vis France or the values of the French revolution ??? So why would the French do that, either by becoming more like the US or on the contrary by staying in a status-quo supposed to be an opposition to the US?

Comment by Allen on Tuesday, Feb 26 at 01:01 AM

First of all let me congratulate you Charlie on shedding the light on many world leaders, especially their policies, aspirations or in most case greeds (for instance the French president). I have to admit that I was really shocked when I saw the pictures of your guests on your webpage. They all look incredibly young! Anyway, back to our subject. The French president has an ego that equal to none in France, may be in Europe. His wife, the closest being, was the first to recognize that when she left him. he felt like she was being used as a pawn for his ambitious political enterprise. There was nothing she could relate to, as far as their marital, and consequently, personal relation was concerned. His pro-Napoleon approach to public life and office in this 21st century is horrible. In order to please the French public, who were genuinely concerned about immigration issue, as many developed countries in the area of extreme poverty, he has adopted an Ku Klux Klan attitude toward the African migrants in France whom, I should point out, parents and grand-parents have sacrificed much more of their blood, sweat and tears to save France than the Hungarian ancestors of Mr. Sarkozy. I am appalled by the description given by Mr. Hoagland, whom I believe is more discreet in order to maintain his relationship within the French elites, trying to make something out of this maniac and so glad the French public is finally catching up with Mr. Sarkozy Madness. I totally agree and salute the more pragmatic approach by Ms. Sciolino of a man the French public has become tired of. Unfortunately, unlike US, they don't have impeachment procedure otherwise they would have got rid of him by now. Mr. Sarkozy seem not willing to recognize he is the product of French revolution. As he touted briefly in one of his TV interview, his own father, a migrant miner from Hungary, was adamant he could not make it into the French society. Glad he did but did not in many way. His wacky behavior is finally showing his true face. He does not deserve to rule the French society. A society built upon pride, honor and prestige of great civilization. Charles De Gaulle, Francois Mitterand, Moliere, Jean Jacques Rousseau and all the greatest figures of French civilization must be spinning in their own graves. Quite frankly, I have to give him credit for looking like a French cheese "gruyere" and that's all.