France: All Obama, All the Time
French national newspapers, much like the American ones, are sharply divided along ideological lines. The right is represented by Le Figaro and the left by Libération and Le Monde. But not unlike the major political parties and the overwhelming majority of French citizens, all three newspapers support Barack Obama for president.
On Monday, the focus was pretty much the same in France as it was in the U.S.: Colin Powell’s endorsement of the Democratic nominee. Le Monde reported that Powell’s endorsement had been seen in the U.S. as a hard blow to John McCain’s fledgling campaign, a view that was echoed on the same day in Libération. Le Figaro went along these lines too, but its article added that this endorsement did not come as a surprise and that for this reason it is not that much of a crucial hit on McCain.
Under American standards, these three leading newspapers would be considered liberal. (Cultural differences matter. In America, ‘liberal’ means left-wing. In France, it usually means right-wing.) It should then come as no surprise then that all three of them have pounded somewhat relentlessly on McCain’s VP pick Sarah Palin for her lack of experience, her populism and her views that, according to some, reach very far to the right.
Accordingly, Thursday’s story in the French columns and blogs that relate to the U.S. election is the Alaska governor’s $150k wardrobe provided to her for/by the Republican party since she was picked as the VP candidate by McCain. Interestingly enough, the most conservative of these three newspapers (Le Figaro) seems to be the one who enjoys hitting on Palin the most; it was reporting that Condoleeza Rice could not bring herself to support the Palin when asked to comment on her candidacy.
As much as they love to hate Sarah Palin, the leading French newspapers love Barack Obama more. In fact, most pundits in France have already called the election for him; the disproportionate number of articles speaking of Obama compared to those speaking of McCain gives proof of that. This opinion trend did not move anywhere at the end of the week. On Friday, Le Figaro focused its attention on the possible Democratic takeover of Virginia, stressing the importance, the wealth and the organization of the Obama machine. Libération, as its self-described ‘socialist’ stance would predict, pounded on McCain for resorting to national security arguments. Its punch line: "When things go bad for the GOP, they wave the red flag of national security."
At the end of the week, the only conclusion I can come up with after reviewing the French press’ covering of the American campaign: Boring. Dead boring. And dead predictable, too. And it’s not just the French press’ love affair with Obama: It’s the general attitude of "Dems good, GOP bad" that has prevailed in France and most of Europe.
Interestingly enough, a McCain presidency and/or a Republican Congress could be good news for the French government as it is trying to export its civil nuclear technology to Asia and North America. If president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to sell nuclear power plants in America, shouldn’t he root for the guy whose support for this kind of energy is the strongest, i.e. John McCain? My guess is, Sarkozy chose to support Obama because acting otherwise would have been tantamount to political suicide.
