Posted on 03/23/2009 10:38:14 PM PDT by Schnucki
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."
These kind of seem like the kind of words most suitable for a sitting head of state, not a former one. The use of the word "peace" is apparently being interpreted by the French newspaper as a tacit recognition of Chirac's strong stance against the Iraq invasion.
Some have interpreted the move as a one-fingered gesture to Nicolas Sarkozy, the current president of France. "So, if I understand well, Mister O., who has already despised Gordon Brown, behaving with him as if he did not know he is Prime Minister of Britain, does not even know the name of the French president," blogs Europumas.
"I wonder if someone had told him, when he came to France last summer, that the man he met was NOT Jacques Chirac!"
What better way to make up with Gordon Brown after the DVDs fiasco than to insult France's president?
Or perhaps it could have been payback for Sarkozy's supposed opinion that Obama's stance on Iran was "utterly immature".
But wait. The now online-only Christian Science Monitor reports that Obama was simply
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
I’m personally hard pressed to say whether the Constitutional POTUS is Joe Biden or John McCain.
GREAT COMMUNICATOR: How would he pronounce Cassiopeia?
and repeatedly saluted Orion Energy Systems, whose CEO, Neal Verfuerth, was present at the event. So Obama referred to "Orion" a number of times. Only problem was, he appeared to be unfamiliar with the word:
All terrific press for Orion, except that Obama kept pronouncing the company's name wrong, calling it OAR-ee-on.
Unbelievable... or not...I know it's a trite observation, and one to which we have been driven on almost a daily basis since the Age of Obama began two short months ago, but can you imagine the hooting and hollering that would have ensued if George Bush had never heard of Orion?
None of the above
God forbid I think it would be NANCY
Biden even looks good in comparison
President Obama shocks me...how could he !
This gaff is but the first of many to come. Hold on to your hats, America and hold your nose. Vote all Democrats out of office!
LOL!! Dumb and naive.
There is only some much Obama that I can take each day.
I caught President Obama around noon-time for his sit-down with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, where he called the PM “Secretary Rudd”...
LOL!
Of the People's Republic of Australia?
I’m not sure how to freepmail. I’m new and getting used to the site. But I would like to be, how you say, pinged?
This is the perfect time for Sarko to do a full-on Reagan.
Didn’t Ireland lower business taxes to get out of its recession?
If Sarko can become a good conservative leader and even elevate France’s position in the world, I’m all FOR it.
The best way to repay Obama’s b****-slap is to show him how it’s done.
I LOVE that the European media is covering this.
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