A column in the New York Sun reports on Nicolas Sarkozy, a popular French politician whose star is rising:
Mr.Sarkozy’s popularity is evidence that the French have had enough of Chirac and everything he represents–good news for France, good news for America. Mr. Chirac is of the neo-Gaullist school that conflates French nationalism with anti-Americanism.
Mr. Sarkozy adores America and has declared himself proud that critics call him more American than French. Mr. Chirac believes in the primacy of the Franco-German relationship. Mr. Sarkozy is indifferent to Germany, instead favoring alliances with Britain, Spain, and America.
Mr. Chirac opposes a referendum on the European constitution; Mr. Sarkozy insists upon it. Mr. Chirac delivers patronizing lecture to the new European Union member states of Eastern Europe–“badly brought up,” he called them for their support of America’s policy in Iraq–but Mr. Sarkozy, with his Hungarian background, gets along with them splendidly.
Mr. Sarkozy is said to have opposed Chirac’s stance on the Iraq war.
Mr. Chirac courts the Arabs. Mr. Sarkozy prefers the Israelis. Mr. Sarkozy, unlike Mr. Chirac, is not a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration…