> True, but I didn't want to get into all those finer points. ;-) The
> one point that mattered, and why I chose Sarkozy specifically, is his
> (and others') pro-America/Bush attitude. That was the one point I was
> making. If Europe were so strongly anti-America, I doubt people like
> he or Merkel would have found themselves in power. Of course, there is
> one exception to this trend--Poland, where the pro-America party
> really fell out in the last election, but that probably had more to do
> with the personalities involved than policy.
Sarkozy getting in had nothing to do with Bush, one way or another.
My opinion of the man is probably best not uttered anywhere children
might be lurking, so I won't expound on that, but even I have to admit
he was the better candidate. After the Sarkozy - Royale televised
debate, I almost would have voted for him, and he stands for
everything I despise.
What is certainly true is that the vast majority of Europeans have
absolutely no idea how the US political system works (or, in many
cases, their own, although that's far from euro-specific) and view the
US leadership (of necessity) through the goggles of the media. One can
largely discount the view of the man on the Clapham omnibus as being
irrelevant.
On the other hand, what the *media* are saying *is* relevant. One
might, with some considerable degree of correctness, suggest that the
European media is anti-Bush, but what I would also point out is that
the European media, biased though it may be on this issue, is *vastly*
more balanced than the US media, at least on the majority of issues.
The fact that anti-Bush sentiment is pretty much generalised in the
european press, which runs a political gamut far broader than the US
has seen since the 50s, should say something...
Simon
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Received on Wed Sep 3 14:03:00 2008
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