Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, doesn’t like wine. He doesn’t like smelly cheeses. He doesn’t like truffles. He likes Diet Coke and candy and big Havana cigars. Such distaste for good taste is widely regarded as unnatural in France, but Sarkozy makes no apologies. He takes pride in his candor, and if it often comes across as uncouth and uncool his attitude is: So what?
Last week there was an excellent profile of French President Nicolas Sarkozy in The New Yorker.
The parallels between Sarkozy and Obama have intrigued me since before both were elected president of their respective countries. I was here in 2007 to witness Sarkozy's election and to field questions from curious French blacks about Obama as he was starting his 2008 campaign. Both were political outsiders, excluded from their countries' elite, and yet both managed to seduce the electorate with promises of change. Now both are up for re-election in 2012. The odds look a little better for Obama than for Sarkozy, but both face an uphill battle. And in both cases, their re-election will depend on how effectively the opposition shoots itself in the foot.
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