the French conceal support for Kerry

The French Have to be Discreet
By Guillemette Faure
Le Figaro

Monday 26 July 2004

Boston - Pierre Moscovici, then Minister of European Affairs, landed there September 11, 2001 after his flight to Washington had flown over a smoldering New York. Now he's back again for the Democratic convention under better circumstances. Having only secured his accreditation at the last moment, he arrives "very modestly", to "bring Socialist Party support" for John Kerry.

Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas, Bruce Buchanan has some advice for him that applies to all French politicians who would like to support John Kerry's candidacy: they should keep their ideas to themselves or else "they could well provoke the opposite result to the one they hope for."

For ever since his entry into the campaign, John Kerry has been trying to get rid of the French label the Republicans have stuck on his back. His connections with France don't really extend very far, however. His grandmother Margaret, married to a diplomat, spent several years in France. It was there that John's mother, Rosemary, met her husband, an American soldier. Her sister, Fiona, John Kerry's aunt and Brice Lalonde's mother, stayed in France, a country Kerry only knew from vacations.

"He looks French," a Bush government representative with nothing better to say, remarked during the primaries. Ever since, conservative talk show hosts regularly evoke the candidate "with a French air", renamed "Monsieur Kerry" or "Jean Cheri". There are also bumper stickers "John Kerry for President... of France."

How could these accusations of French connections harm the Democratic candidate? It's not just leftovers from the Francophobe campaign conducted during the period of differences over Iraq that make Kerry a suspect candidate. "Middle America sees the French as somewhat snobbish intellectuals. And then, the conservatives base their campaign on the Democrats being elitists disconnected from the rest of the country. Kerry supported by the French confirms the voters' worst suspicions about him," notes Thomas Frank, whose recently published book What's the Matter with Kansas? explains how the Republicans have succeeded in winning Middle American voters by waging a cultural anti-intellectual war.

The Republicans respond to Kerry's argument that President Bush has imperiled the United States' relationships with its allies by trivializing the multilateralist policies Kerry would be likely to conduct: "Most Americans living in the heartland don't care about knowing whether Teresa and John Kerry are going to be invited to sophisticated dinners in France," declared Republican Senator from Arizona Jon Kyl in response to the Democratic convention's theme, "Stronger at home, respected abroad."

As for Brice Lalonde, the cousin who planned to come over for the convention, he gives Bush ammunition. This past April first, in spite of his own efforts to the contrary, he found himself mentioned in a fake ad on the Republican Party website. With an accordion in the background, one heard that Kerry had voted for a hike in gasoline taxes, "that's nothing for a guy who owns a yacht" and for a hike in taxes: "That annoyed his French cousin so much; he called to say he was going to vote for Bush."

Just like George Bush Senior, who was accused of elitism before him, John Kerry avoids answering French reporters in French in front of the cameras. "He's too afraid that might end up on (the conservative channel) Fox News," explains a Newsweek reporter. The handful of French present in Boston didn't only come to support him. It's the custom for American conventions to invite government political parties. Others, such as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, expected Tuesday, come out of curiosity about how American political life works. The former minister attentively followed Howard Dean's campaign. He was the candidate during the primaries who succeeded in mobilizing thousands of voters and raising thousands of dollars through the magic of the internet.

Arnaud Montebourg, cofounder of the Nouveau Parti socialiste, and Thierry Mandon, Ris-Orangis's Mayor have a joint program that is more of a study trip.

They gave up meetings with the big names ("It's just not serious, these six minute meetings") to see the "technicians" instead. They've planned visits to former Clinton team think tanks and, since we're in Boston, the university capital, meetings with expatriate French researchers. Also a Clinton team member, Lawrence Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and President of Harvard today, will receive Alain Juppe, who arrives on Wednesday with his wife and children. "He's not going to the convention to represent the UMP [Union pour un Mouvement Populaire - the present ruling party in France], they insist to the Chirac party. That role falls to Axel Poniatowski, President of the Assemblee Nationale's Franco-American friendship group. The party will also send Valerie Cocozza, its events director, so that UMP can take inspiration from the American political machine. The UMP will be in New York at the end of August for the Republican Party convention, but with a parliamentary delegation. That gives Thomas Frank an idea. "The French could endorse Bush's candidacy..." and with a great burst of laughter, "that would be a good idea to make him lose."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/080104H.shtml

And we should care ...why?

Well you dont have to care, since you're not an American. Americans should care, since it's akin to having the Soviets support a presidential candidate during the cold war.

Not exactly the ringing endorsement you want voters to hear about.

So now the French are the equivalent of the Soviets? Oh, this is good

The French are today's equivalent of the fucking Soviets?

The population may be interested to know that stockula whined in my journal the other day about how I was being mean to him on the boards.

And when you read utter obsessive bollocks like this, I mean, do you wonder why I treat him with ever-increasing contempt? Can you blame me?

I mean ....fuck me .... does life in Alaska fuck anyone's mind up as badly as his has been..?

Snap!

Instead of the Manchurian Candidate, should be the Parisian Candidate.

Equivalant of the Sovets? Not quite that. But they remind me a lot of the USSR. Members of the UN Security Council (how do they rate that status, anyway? What role did they have in shaping the post-war world, or in defeating the forces of totalitarianism in WWII?) who reflexively situate themselves against the United States. All very confusing, given the sacrifices we have made for them twice in the last century, and confusing when the threats posed against the US today also threaten France and Western Civilization. Yet they'd rather play these stupid pissy games with us. Compound that with their amoral cynicism, and you've really got a truly despicable country. Solidly anti-American, and solidly pro-Kerry.

This is not a coincidence.

[Edited on Jul 31, 2004 by stockula]

Is this what the SG Conservatives group is like? Maybe I should join...I just don't see this kind of hilariousness every day

Ummm, did anyone else notice that this article says basically "The GOP, lacking in substantive criticism or a real record to run on have resorted to baseless, xenophobic name calling in a gradeschool attempt to marginalize their opponent."?

Are you sure this is the article you meant to post, Stock?

I wondered about that too, hence my incomprehension.

It seems to be from a left leaning website.

I'm at the point of being seriously concerned for stockula's mental health. I mean, what is the poor deluded boy thinking?

Yes. My disdain of France and their policies isn't a matter of xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, or Thomas Frank's lack of understanding of what Republicans mean by "elitism". I'm against France mainly for the attitude they have decided to adopt versus the US. It makes no sense to me why they'd do this, other than the fact they're ingrateful douchebags. I'm not the only one who feels this way towards France. And the French are cognizant enough of how disliked they are in the US to know to keep their support of John Kerry on the down-low. Remember, this article was not for American readers, it was for French ones. If not translated, you would never read anything remotely like this in the press, except maybe on the merdeinfrance.blogspot.com weblog.

Like, possibly, allegedly, preferring one of your presidential candidates over another.

Who, then, must be automatically discredited.

Seriously, dude, seek therapy.

Its basically the NYT of France. Its not particularly left, in fact it used to be very rightistst. it also was owned, in part, for several years by the Carlyle Group, ironically enough.

Apparently, having massive business dealing in France and being fluent in French makes you a good president... if you're Republican.

If "he looks French" is the best smear tactic Republicans can come up with, then I feel sorry for them.

I'm thinking even the French realize how hated they are in the US, they understand they have to circumscribe their support for Kerry, lest it hurt his campaign.

Much like how the Democrats had to remind their activist base at the convention to keep their true feelings and politics under wraps, let it alienate centrists and undecided voters.

What I'm saying is, John Kerry's campaign is a fucking Trojan Horse.

[Edited on Jul 31, 2004 by stockula]

You're shitting me! Ha!

Anyway, I guess we can be grateful stockula is actually doing more than posting once or twice then disappearing from view and not answering his critics. Let's see how long this lasts.

hypocrisy in action everybody, and all within two sentences! let's give him a big hand! isn't he great?!!!


"ungrateful"

whatever you say

[Edited on Jul 31, 2004 by casper]

I do believe in stockula.

I do. I do.

Sorry. U and I are right next to each other on the keyboard. Forgive me.

That wouldn't be at all due to the "Freedom Fries" hysteria whipped up by the right, now, would it?

I mean, it's not even remotely possible that the French like Kerry because, well, he's not Bush, who is an utterly incompetent fucktard, and, well, they can tell?

Just between me and you, most of us in the rest of the world are able to discern Bush's monumental idiocy. We're still kind of shaking our heads in awe that half of the voting population in the US seems kind of oblivious to this fact.

!!!!!!!

So that the French can sneak in and take over the US?!

Oh my god.

So what do you want me to do from now on? When I go to bed or leave the house, say "AFK, not running away, be back in 3 hours"?

Who the fuck are you? I'm sure you've never met a french person in your entire life. Who are you to say we're all despicable cynics? Not all nations are war mongering fascists. A nation that are against a ridiculous war, started for ridiculous reasons, motivated by american propaganda must be fucking pussies...obviously. The whole world is wrong, only a group of narrow-minded americans are right.

There is no serious "threat" to the US. If there is (which there isn't), it's motivated by your reckless actions against a country that never threatened you in the first place. And don't give me the WMD or the "they were eeeeevil!" argument. The american government is the "evil-doer".

By the way, France wasn't the only country against that war.