Does Barack Obama know who the President of France is?

[stephanie]

probably not.

Posted By: Toby Harnden at Mar 24, 2009 at 04:34:54 [General]
Posted in: Foreign Correspondents
Tags:Gordon Brown, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy


It's long been the case that the easiest way for an American and a Brit - whatever their respective political persusasions - to bond is to chuckle over something rude about the French.

Jokes about garlic, frogs' legs, surrender, duplicity, take your pick - it's safe ground. If Barack Obama had gone on Leno and made a barbed quip about our Gallic friends instead of the Special Olympics he'd have been home free.

So perhaps the new president is being devilishly clever by, as Le Figaro reports, writing to Jacques Chirac, former French president, that: "I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world."


read the rest and comments.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/03/24/does_barack_obama_know_who_the_president_of_france _is

[-Cp]

probably not.

read the rest and comments.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/03/24/does_barack_obama_know_who_the_president_of_france _is


You forgot to quote this part of the same article :)


But wait. The now online-only Christian Science Monitor reports (http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/03/23/obama-writes-letter-to-chirac-blogosphere-goes-crazy/) that Obama was simply replying to a letter from Chirac "who was writing him as the head of his foundation - the Jacques Chirac Foundation for sustainable development and cultural dialogue".

Perhaps the hair-trigger settings of the Obama gaffe detectors are leading to a few shots going wide of the mark.

[actsnoblemartin]

probably correct


probably not.

Posted By: Toby Harnden at Mar 24, 2009 at 04:34:54 [General]
Posted in: Foreign Correspondents
Tags:Gordon Brown, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy


It's long been the case that the easiest way for an American and a Brit - whatever their respective political persusasions - to bond is to chuckle over something rude about the French.

Jokes about garlic, frogs' legs, surrender, duplicity, take your pick - it's safe ground. If Barack Obama had gone on Leno and made a barbed quip about our Gallic friends instead of the Special Olympics he'd have been home free.

So perhaps the new president is being devilishly clever by, as Le Figaro reports, writing to Jacques Chirac, former French president, that: "I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world."


read the rest and comments.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/03/24/does_barack_obama_know_who_the_president_of_france _is