We arrived in Paris early Monday after a sleepless night. I took a hard spill on an slanted moving walkway at CDG, and eventually arrived at our hotel, bruised and ready for a good day's sleep. Lunch intervened, a nap sufficed and I, my obsessive self, having voted absentee, tuned in the Obama-Romney Debate at 3 a.m. Paris time.
That was not hard, most French hotels carry several English channels. Most carried the debate including France 24's English Channel. Obama more than lived up to my expectations and before I went to sleep I heard the early polls giving him a clear victory.
But it's worth remembering that the French have a far higher interest in foreign affairs than the average American. And it is probably good for Romney's case that he did not wake up to French front pages about Romney's weaknesses and the poverty of Republican foreign policy.
More below the fold.
Figaro, the oldest French newspaper, is so conservative in its orientation that earlier this year, an assembly of its journalists adopted a motion to the effect that the Dassault family had turned the publication into a "bulletin" for then President Sarkozy and his ruling party.
Right wing, Figaro is, but it's headline was "Dernier Débat : Obama champion du Monde!" or as translated, "Last Debate: Obama World Champion!" in its edition for October 24, but on the streets Tuesday afternoon here. A number of their writers conveyed the sense of a Romney lost in the weeds of foreign policy, but Veronique Saint-Geours who blogs daily on the campaign for Figaro had the honor of topping the on-line offerings, also conveyed by other reporters in the Figaro print editions, sometimes more harshly.
"For 90 minutes in Boca Raton, Florida, Obama and Romney clashed - and bitterly for the last time - on American foreign policy during Obama's four years. By reducing if possible topics - Terrorism, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan to domestic politics, jobs and everyday life. Obama defended the opening to the world that he practiced for four years, including that to the Arab world among other things, without leaving Israel as an argument for Romney."More riveted to the past, Romney has emerged as representative of a Republican political slightly frozen and outdated, far from his image as CEO and Obama as the champion of his generation and controlled opening. He (Obama) convinced those who still hesitate?" That last sentence was posed as a question. As in the US, there was some partisan disagreement in on line comments. The translation is mine.
It was Le Monde, to many the world's premier newspaper reporting on diplomacy, that was harsh not only about Romney, but about the Republican Party, summing up in it's editorial for Wednesday, October 24.The lead story notes Obama's command of foreign affairs, "Obama agressif, Romney sans projet." In simple terms of translation, Obama was aggressive while Romney was without a plan. More succinctly, in colloquial terms, Romney is an empty suit.
More startling was the Page 1 editorial in Wednesday's Le Monde print edition, "Diplomatie l'indigence des republicains"
I translate that as "Diplomacy: the poverty of the Republicans."
Google translates it, less well in my view, as "the Paucity of the Republicans." If you'd like to read the Google translation of the Le Monde editorial, it is troubled with the usual syntax issues, but should make sense. You can also take a look at the front page of Le Monde to get a sense of how it played.
There is in that bad translation something worth putting into better context near the end which I'm doing. Someone else with better French can sort out a better translation if they wish.
"Mr. Romney is a victim of Republican divisions on foreign policy. Torn between neoconservatives, isolationists and ultra realistic, the party lacks a coherent approach to foreign policy. Instead, it lives in the illusions engendered by the nostalgic aftermath of the Cold War when the United States exerted an unparalleled dominance. This is not a policy.
"Obama has suffered many setbacks since his first term began. He reached out to Iran , to China, to Russia. He wanted to establish with emerging powers a multilateralism suited to the 21st century. He saw a way to attack the great issues of the day: nuclear proliferation, global warming, etc. He suffered some illusions which could be added to his failure in the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
"But he ended the United States role in the Iraq tragedy, promised to leave Afghanistan. In short, he set a line to redirect US diplomacy towards the continent of the future - Asia. He brought about the death of bin Laden and waged a merciless war against terrorism.
"Aggressive during the debate, Obama is a realistic prudent president. Mr. Romney, on the other hand, seems very inconsistent."
There is more positive reaction to President Obama in France. Le Nouvel Observateur has published a 60 page issue (in French of course) about Obama and those who are closest to him, with little mention of opponents.
There were other reactions as well. Ellen Barry in a story in the International Herald Tribune from Moscow, wrote that "...for those who believed that Russia had nothing at stake, Monday’s televised debate served to focus the mind. By lunchtime on Tuesday, a top analyst had rendered his verdict in the newspaper Izvestiya: If Mitt Romney wins, Fyodor Lukyanov wrote, “it’s not that relations between Russia and the United States will be spoiled — they will halt. And they will not exist for a long time.”"As the race between Mr. Romney and President Obama rounds its last curve, the world is watching — and the coverage from other countries reveals as much about how they see themselves as it does about the American political process."
Steven Erlanger, a New York Times correspondent, filed a good overall piece looking at some aspects of how things become skewed in presidential debates -- and he cites a fine reason for some Europeans to happy.
"As for Europe, the lack of attention made perfect sense. Europe is an ally, not a policy dilemma, and the crisis of the euro zone has been technical, lengthy and tedious, and seems to be quietly losing steam. America’s own debt problems dwarf those of Europe. As the former French foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, has said, “Europe for Obama is not a big problem, nor is it much help with America’s problems.”
"But the French daily Libération asked: “And what about Europe? It isn’t far from Australia in the competition for the status of the most forgotten continent.” But silence was good for Europe, the paper said. “At least the euro crisis isn’t brandished by Obama as a major source of economic trouble for America, and Romney has stopped making ‘European socialism’ his campaign scarecrow.”
"On the Internet and on Twitter there were thousands of reactions to the debate. But speaking for many was @jonathanwatts, a Latin American correspondent for The Guardian, who wrote: “Obama won this debate. World lost. Apart from 5 mins on China, it was all Middle East. Where was LatAm, Europe, climate?”
So, world, perhaps be grateful that Romney doesn't know where most of you are. Our friend Cyril L., on the other hand is shocked that the election is close. I will not translate his words regarding Mr. Romney. Suffice it to say, he like most of the French we know are admirers of Mr. Obama.
Obama, we sometimes forget, was a rock star outside the United States before he was elected and his diplomatic efforts and those of Hilary Clinton are enhanced by immense personal prestige, a lack of arrogance but with a knowledge there is a hard edge if needed. In the sometimes emphemerous world of diplomacy, Obama is a known quantity who is respected and with it his nation. That is not something that will come so easily to a President Romney, who is seen most often as a rich dilettante without real knowledge about the world or foreign policy. For better or worse, they see Obama as someone who worked to acquire diplomatic coherence before he was elected.