Alex Spillius explains why Sarkozy is Bush's new best friend in an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph:
The invitation to Mr Sarkozy underlines how far Gordon Brown has distanced himself from the unpopular Bush administration. The PM has shunned the chummy, open-necked diplomacy favoured by Mr Blair and Mr Sarkozy for a cooler, business-like approach.
But the speech the French leader delivers will also underline the differences between him and Mr Blair. It will, of course, reflect the dramatic improvement in relations between Paris and Washington after the bitter disagreement over the Iraq war with Jacques Chirac.
Aged 52, Sarkozy is of a generation that doesn't share the reflexive anti-Americanism of his predecessors. Comfortable with American culture, Mr Sarkozy - known back home as "Sarko l'Americain" - adores the US for its energy, optimism and weak trade unions.
The American story also fits his odyssey from the son of a Hungarian immigrant and a Jewish mother [It is Sarkozy’s maternal grandfather that is Jewish not his mother] to the Elysée Palace, and his message to the French to loosen their welfare safety net.
Well, most of it is true, but what isn’t said is that Sarko knows that he has a lot to gain by hugging a weak US president that is desperate to show his fellow Americans that he was right on Iraq and on everything else and that even the new French president is implicitly admitting for he isn't afraid to embrace him. As I've said before I doubt that Sarko knows much about America for what he likes it Hollywood, its skyscrapers and its riches. Sarkozy likes big toys and big things and so does America. I think that whether this love affair between Sarkozy and America lasts will depend on who becomes the next American president and on whether Sarkozy has really renounce the Gaullist Grandeur. In other words, Sarkozy hasn’t yet given America tangible proofs of his love yet. The real test will come if, not if when his Atlanticism becomes a political liability (on the contrary to the conventional wisdom, Sarkozy didn’t run on his love for America, he ran on the French national identity and the need for France to get rid of those who couldn’t accept French traditions or who didn’t love France). What will he do then?
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