AMERICA:There is one big difference between the American and the French world view: their attitude to colonialism, writes LARA MARLOWE
THE PRESIDENTS stood at twin lecterns in the East Room of the White House. They could not have looked more mismatched, but they professed near identical views. Both wanted the UN Security Council to pass tough sanctions against Iran, quickly. Both want Israel to stop colonising the West Bank. And both say that winning in Afghanistan is crucial to the security of the West.
“Rarely in the history of our two countries has the community of views been so identical between the United States of America and France,” President Nicolas Sarkozy crowed.
How could two men espousing the same policies convey such different impressions? The healthcare victory has put a new spring into Barack Obama’s step, even if his opinion poll results lack bounce. Sarkozy’s party just lost regional elections, and his approval rating is at an all-time low of 30 per cent.
Sarkozy appeared tense and distracted throughout their 22-minute press conference. While Obama spoke, Sarkozy’s eyes darted about the reception room, as if he expected someone to lob a grenade at him. When Sarkozy spoke, Obama turned politely towards him and listened.
Sarkozy related the most telling anecdote. In what looked like another act of Obama-mimicry, Sarkozy had taken his wife, Carla Bruni, to Ben’s Chili Bowl for lunch. (In January 2009, Obama lunched at the U Street diner with Washington mayor Adrian Fenty.) “When I walked in, I saw a huge photograph of President Obama,” Sarkozy said. “And I’m afraid that when you go back to that restaurant, you may see a smaller photograph of the French president.”
Sarkozy was vain enough to bestow his picture upon a Washington restaurant, in the hope it would hang beside Obama’s.
No other head of state has been invited, with his wife, to dine à quatre with Barack and Michelle in their private dining room, the Élysée kept saying. Sarkozy needed Obama to burnish his image.
And strange as it may seem, the world’s most popular politician, the star whom other heads of state and government vie to befriend – indeed serve – has been faulted for having no buddies among world leaders. Obama has tried to circumvent governments, to reach out directly to world populations. But his domestic critics say his global populism is hurting US interests.
At the White House press briefing on the day of Sarkozy’s visit, the questions were more informative than the answers. Was the White House trying to “make up with the French president?” a correspondent asked. Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, feigned ignorance. “There have been perceptions that there was a snub, that didn’t get quite the treatment that he thought he should get in their prior visits together,” the journalist explained.
Sarkozy is often his own worst enemy. At Columbia University, he commented on the healthcare Bill, saying, “We solved the problem 50 years ago . . . Welcome to the club of states that don’t dump sick people.”
“He said it in French, but you could hear the smirk,” commented Chris Matthews of MSNBC television.
Sarkozy also told the US it needed to “reflect on what it means to be the world’s No 1 power” and to be a country “that listens”. The New York Times told him to stop lecturing, and to send more troops to Afghanistan.
Despite the intimate dinner, you couldn’t help but notice that the White House did the bare minimum. Dinner started at 6.30 and lasted less than two hours. There were no photographers allowed in the Oval office during the bilateral meeting – a courtesy accorded to more honoured guests.
Obama has befriended leaders – just not the Europeans traditionally cosseted by US presidents. He’s reserved his warmest hospitality for the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, who enjoyed the first state dinner of the Obama presidency, and Taoiseach Brian Cowen, guest of honour at the White House St Patrick’s Day reception for 500 guests. On these occasions, Obama mentioned the “oppression” endured by the US, India and Ireland. The adjective “British” was understood.
Therein, I suspect, lies the biggest difference between Sarkozy’s and Obama’s world views. Before Sarkozy became president, his UMP party attempted to pass a law requiring French schools to teach “the positive role” of French colonialism.
Three times in 22 minutes, Sarkozy mentioned the transatlantic directorate formed by himself, Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama. Obama looked uneasy.
Each time Obama is perceived to snub a former colonial power, I recall the passage in Dreams from my Father where the US President imagined the experiences of his grandfather, Hussein Onyango, who worked as a servant to British officers in Kenya. “He still hears the clipped voice of a British captain, explaining for the third and last time the correct proportion of tonic to gin.”
Sarkozy hero-worships les Anglo-Saxons. One of Obama’s first acts as president was to send a bronze bust of Winston Churchill (that George W Bush had borrowed for the Oval Office) back to the British ambassador.