The American view that the French are wimps is ugly and undeserved but widely held, so French President Sarkozy’s statement implying that President Obama is one gets our attention. Apparently Obama didn’t want Sarkozy to upstage him at the UN in September. The result:

Sarkozy was so annoyed with Obama’s weak-kneed approach that he reportedly told Le Monde that “we live in the real world, not in a virtual one”, a cutting and mocking reference to the US president’s drive for a new arms control treaty.

More from the Wall Street Journal

President Sarkozy in particular pushed hard. He had been “frustrated” for months about Mr. Obama’s reluctance to confront Iran, a senior French government official told us, and saw an opportunity to change momentum. But the Administration told the French that it didn’t want to “spoil the image of success” for Mr. Obama’s debut at the U.N. and his homily calling for a world without nuclear weapons, according to the Paris daily Le Monde.

Read more »

You’d think that President Obama could spare a few minutes for a formal meeting with the leader of one of our oldest and most important allies while both are in town on business. Not so. According to the BBC:

The prime minister’s team were “frantic” after being unable to secure the talks at the UN summit in New York, a diplomatic source has told the BBC.

However, the president held private meetings with the leaders of Japan, China and Russia.

Downing Street said reports of a snub were “completely without foundation”.

Not a snub? Sounds like typical British “stiff upper lip” stuff so as not to create further tension and to minimize Brown’s domestic political embarrassment.
Read more »

Martha Coakley, Democrat and Massachusetts Attorney General, has officially announced her candidacy to fill the Senate vacancy left by Ted Kennedy’s passing.

She gets the headstart, but with the long holiday weekend I wonder how many people will be paying attention.
Read more »

But is she really putting her speakership at risk, as Redstate’s post Speaker Pelosi Stands Firm on the Public Option, Essentially Tells the White House to Go Pound Sand asserts?

That moment in The Great Obamacare War arrived yesterday, when the Speaker of the House stood firm on the public option, essentially telling the White House to go pound sand.

In effect, Speaker Pelosi just called in an air-strike on her own position.

This is not going to be pretty.

It will likely cost her the Speakership. After the 2010 elections.

Read more »

Will Obama be impeached or forced to resign before the 2012 elections? Howard Portnoy’s post in Hot Air, titled Can Obama Save His Presidency? suggests just that:

The fate of the Obama presidency is, I believe, a fait accompli. The question now is not how it will end — but when. I for one am growing increasingly skeptical that he can survive a complete four-year term without the American people or himself at some point crying “Enough!”

Surely even the most relaxed definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors” doesn’t cover having a far left -wing agenda, so impeachment is a non-starter. As for resignation, Portnoy’s analysis implies that it wouldn’t even occur to President Obama:

Obama was born into a radical political world view fostered by both his natural parents and, in the absence of any parent after his mother’s death, reinforced by Frank Marshall Davis, a black activist and champion of identity politics. When he came to Chicago as a young adult, Obama sought out and found the same sorts of people, from Wright and Pfleger to William Ayers.

How surprising then should it be that, for Obama, socialism is the norm — the gold standard according to which he sets his political compass and by which he attempts, however futilely, to plot America’s future course. It is his socialist philosophy that informs and infects his policies and his understanding of the job of President.

Jennifer Rubin in Commentary suspects that Obama is being told what he wants to hear:

I suspect that so long as there are allies and advisers whispering in his ear that all he needs is some rhetorical tweaking, we won’t see anything approaching a substantive revision of his agenda. If the president doesn’t correct course, the voters may do it for him in 2010. But for now, don’t get your hopes up for a swing to the center. After all, Obama is being told, and no doubt believes, that the mantle of liberalism has been passed to him from Ted Kennedy. He won’t give it up—unless the voters force him to.

Obama would never resign under any circumstance, even with an increasingly likely repudiation in 2010 elections. The more reasonable question to ask is if Obama’s actions and policies will limit his presidency to a single-term. Make no mistake – he will be the Democratic candidate in 2012. The next presidential election is 38 months away, and something – perhaps a foreign-policy win – will occur to improve his standing in the polls. Combine this with some rhetorical moderation in 2010-2011, and talk of a single-term presidency will evaporate.

Besides, can you imagine Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi as President?

The nonsurprising factoid in the latest Rassmussen poll is that 57% Would Like to Replace Entire Congress. In addition to the headline two interesting trends are highlighted in the release.

First trend- Increasingly partisan approval ratings.

…the number of Democrats who would vote to keep the entire Congress has grown from 25% last fall to 43% today. In fact, a modest plurality of Democrats would now vote to keep the legislators. Last fall, a plurality of Democrats were ready to throw them all out…While Democrats have become more supportive of the legislators, voters not affiliated with either major party have moved in the opposite direction. Today, 70% of those not affiliated with either major party would vote to replace all of the elected politicians in the House and Senate.

According to Rassmussen Republican voters are disenchanted with congresspeople from their party, but this situation remains unchanged.

Second trend – An increasing mistrust of Congresspeople’s motivations and their true concern for constituents.

Just 14% give Congress good or excellent review for their overall performance, while only 16% believe it’s Very Likely that Congress will address the most important problems facing our nation. Seventy-five percent (75%) say members of Congress are more interested in their own careers than they are in helping people.

Ballooning deficit projections, the intransigence of Speaker Pelosi and others about health care reform’s public option, and the Democrats’ (such as Carol Shea-Porter) handling of the so-called town hall meetings have cost House members dearly:

…most voters say they understand the health care legislation better than Congress. Just 22% think the legislature has a good understanding of the issue. Three-out-of-four (74%) trust their own economic judgment more than Congress’.

For a democratic congressperson, increased partisanship combined with broad-based “throw the bums out” discontent has to be a nightmare. On the one hand, there’s the pressure to conform to the party line; on the other, there’s the risk of losing re-election. The few who represent “safe” seats can afford to back the President, but the remainder who support the public option will – at the least – have to prove to independent constituents that they understand the legislation and have solid reasons for backing it. Best guess is that most of them have a lot of work to do to convince voters to return them to Washington, and the ones who rode the anti-Bush wave (like Rep Shea-Porter) will be the most vulnerable.