QUOTE(Stacy @ Aug 28 2007, 07:21 PM)
QUOTE(Karen @ Aug 28 2007, 02:04 PM)
Stacy: It's a great article. Some people say the "human bomb" is Sarko"s wife. Many of my French friends were offended that she chose not to return to Maine to meet with President Bush and was photographed out shopping the day before and the day after the presidents met.
On the other hand, my American friends mostly feel it was a hoot. That's the wrong word .. but you get the drift.
There are a lot of questions about her, aren't there?
I can understand not wanting to have lunch with the Bushes -- it wouldn't be high on my list either, especially because I'm not sure I'd be very diplomatic! On the other hand, this wasn't a big state event where one person more or less isn't that big a deal. I read that Laura invited her personally. To me it was simply rude and inconsiderate of her to beg off on the pretense of being ill and then go shopping.
My two cents, which with the current exchange rate aren't worth much!
To me, rude is the way George Bush has behaved toward France, the French and the American-France alliance over the last 5 years. Many examples-the one I'll never forget was at the 60th anniversary of D-Day when a French reporter threw him a softball-"Mr. President, John Kennedy said he had two homes-America and France. Do you share his feelings?" Answer: "I have two homes too-the US and Texas".
Sarkozy is playing his cards well, knowing he'll be President for almost all of the first term of Bush's successor, when the real work will begin. In the meantime, he's re-positioning France as a player on the world stage, and himself as a world leader.
I admire his skill thus far. And I very much respect his wife's opinion, and her guts to act on it.
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