I just watched Sarkozy's speech to the American congress and it can be summarized this way: I love America, I love Americans, I want to love from America, and I wished America would love me because then, I would be able to love it even more. To be serious, it was a good speech, but not one of Sarkozy's best because it was obvious that he was enjoying the moment so much that he didn't want to take any risk and to spoil it. He took the easy way out by talking to Americans about them, about why they are great and about why he will stand beside them. I wish Sarkozy had made a “French speech,” that is that he had spoken to Americans parliamentarians about France, about his traditions, and its own greatness. I wished he had explained that he was convinced that it isn't in the French DNA to be anti-American and of his belief that France is not only condemned to be America's ally, but to be its sister nation.
Sarkozy's speech will be what he hopes it to be that is the beginning of a special relationship with the United States if he is able better than Blair to deal with the pressures of being America's Friend and for that friendship to be viewed at home as a form of servitude. Blair had the advantage of history in the sense that the British prime ministers usually prefer America to Europe and consider that they share a common heritage. Sarkozy doesn't have this advantage. There is going to come a time when he has to make a stand and choose to either finish like Blair, that is with a t-shirt that says I gave my heart and my political gifts to Bush and all I got was this lousy t-shirt, or to make France so indispensable that so that it is no longer fashionable neither in France nor in America to bash either countries to score political points. It’s a great challenge, but the good news is that Sarkozy has 5 years or may be 10 years (I hope that doesn’t happen) to meet it.
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