[Nick Danger]

playing the anti-American card is seen in political circles here as Chirac's strongest position as he prepares to run for a third five-year term in 2007.

Hey, it's mutual. We did the same thing here, calling Kerry "The Poodle" and decorating him with French flags. Those were not meant as compliments.

[AmishDude]

America's chiding of the French is the reaction of a superpower to a silly little country. What we witness with France is what used to happen with Latin American dictators. They blamed the US for everything: Bread lines, low wages, high prices. Whatever it was, it was Uncle Sam's fault. Castro still does it to great effect. It's much easier to believe in the conspiracy concocted by the powerful villain than to be introspective. Chirac will run on a platform of: It's all Bush's fault. With the ginned up unpopularity of the Iraq war Bush is an easy villain.

(Why should the people of Europe care so freakin' much anyway? Yeah, Bush is a cowboy, doesn't listen to Chirac and might destroy the UN by uncovering the Oil for Food scandal and might eventually rise to the level of warmaking that Clinton engaged in, but get a grip, people, he's not going to make your espresso more bitter.)

On his recent visit to London, Chirac pressed for "multipolarity"

He's already experiencing bipolarity. I think he's crazy. For all of the chiding of the US for not engaging in enough diplomacy, it's Chirac who's making gratuitous and unnecessary insults at every turn.