Sarko needs to go on offense. State that this is the kind of desperate thing you might expect from Kim Jong Il or Hugo Chavez, but the French people know better and France is not so impotent that it needs to define itself as anti-America.
IMO Sarko is handling it very well. He is keeping his cool and showing he has the strength of character and disciple to deal with things like this.
By calling attention to the “Stalinist” and “Soviet-like” actions of Royal, he is again focusing attention on the fact that she is a Socialist, no matter what kind of cockamamie “centrist” groveling she is willing to go through to get elected.