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...Sarkozy is actually a new kind of Frenchman. He's head of the Union for a Popular Movement, to which President Chirac belongs, but he does not share M. Chirac's last-century economic theories. He wants to encourage free enterprise, that most American of economic theories, and thinks these views may propel him to the presidency. He takes pride in a mixed ancestry that includes a Hungarian father and a Jewish grandfather. He has the rough edges that endear him to Americans -- he likes "Miami Vice," and he's not ashamed to be called "Sarko the American."
Unlike Frenchmen who wouldn't dare speak English in public until they get their pristine syntax grammatically perfect, he managed a few sentences of pidgin when he met Nicholas Scoppetta, the New York City fire commissioner, at a ceremony honoring 9/11 firefighters: "I run. This morning. In Central Park. With T-shirt firefighters." He sounded a little like Gerard Depardieu, the awkward and loveable star in the movie "Green Card." The firepersons loved it.
He told Jewish leaders that "I am a friend of America. I am a friend of Israel." This resonates even with many of his countrymen, whose traditional anti-Semitism has been tempered by the violence of Muslim gangs like those who rioted for several days and nights last fall in the Paris suburbs. Sarkozy understands Islamist jihad and calls the gangs "scum."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SuzanneFields/2006/09/18/vive_this_difference