Now Obama has insulted French President Sarkozy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh no! Obama sent a letter to Chirac, saying he looks forward to working with him the next four years. Le Figaro, French newspaper is horrified at the faux pas. Doesn't Obama ever consult his staff before acting? Sarkozy is the President there! It's like Sarko writing to George Bush and saying he looks forward to working with him. Chirac is the FORMER president.

Barack Obama does not seem to know that in May 2007, French voters elected Nicolas Sarkozy to the French presidency, to succeed Jacques Chirac who had been president for twelve years.

Yesterday, we told you Sarkozy is irritated because Mister O. refuses to tell him if he will accept to meet him personally in the next few months.

Barack Obama wrote a letter to Jacques Chirac to tell him about his desire to "work with him" for the next four years ! In a letter described by Chirac as "very nice," Obama wrote, "I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world." The use of the word "peace" was taken to be an indirect reference to Chirac's stance against the US intervention in Iraq, which Obama had also opposed.

This revelation was made by the online edition of the daily Le Figaro on Thursday.

So, if I understand well, Mister O., who has already despised Gordon Brown, behaving with him as if he did not know he is Prime Minister of Britain, does not even know the name of the French president.

I wonder if someone had told him, when he came to France last summer, that the man he met was NOT Jacques Chirac !

In any case, for Sarko, the blow must be terrible : he has tried to persuade Obama to invite him in Washington for months, and now he learns that his predecessor might soon be Obama's guest at the White House before him ! http://europumas.over-blog.com/article-29271371.html edited to add the original french article: http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualites/20...es-chirac-.php

This commenter says: "In fact, Obama responded to a letter Chirac had addressed to him in the name of his Chirac Foundation for Peace and the Environment. This was not, in any case, an expression of disdain from Obama to Sarkozy. It's a shame that the article did not specify the actual context of this letter."

In other words, there is no faux pas here, nothing to see, everyone, move along.

I found that same comment after I read the link AAC posted to me as well. But that's just one comment someone posted, and we don't really know if Obama was responding to a letter Chirac wrote to him, though there are a couple of other comments saying that Obama wrote to the Chirac's Foundation (but no else mentioned that Obama was replying to Chirac), and I have read all the comments (over 80 of them).

We DO know that Chirac has publicly described the letter as "very nice."

So, even if Obama wasn't confused about who was the President of France, the letter is still offensive in that he deliberately wrote to Chirac: "I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world."

When the US President writes a formal letter to a world leader (or an ex-leader) of another country, that letter carries the weight of the formality and is an official message from the USA. It's no longer an informal conversation, but an official document that carries some weight. Obama likely knew the effect this would cause, and he purposely and carefully crafted his words to undermine Sarkozy. He writes about working with Chirac for the next 4 years. He writes about peace knowing full well that Chirac was totally against the US intervention in Iraq, while Sarkozy was largely in agreement with GW Bush.

And from the same source - Le Figaro - here are two more comments related to Obama's letter:

"Je trouve que c'est un manque de respect envers la France et les Français que M. Obama s'adresse à notre ancien Président, en ignorant celui qui est en exercice, même s'il n'apprécie notre président actuel. Qu'en serait-il si un président français agissait de la sorte envers un président des USA.?"
I find it disrespectful towards France and the French people that Mr Obama contacted our ex-President, and ignored the one who is fulfilling the duties, even if he does not appreciate our actual president. What would've happened if a French President acted in this manner towards a president of USA?
************
"Enfin n'oublions pas que CHIRAC devrait être en prison aujourd'hui vu ses magouilles au RPR (caisses noires et emplois fictifs de la ville de Paris) et son enrichissement personnel et divers frais pantagruelliques à l'Elisée... il s'en sort bien. Pas de quoi être nostalgique."
Finally let us not forget that CHIRAC should be in prison today due to his strong cronyisms in RPR [Chirac's Party] (slush funds and fictitious jobs paid by the city of Paris) and his cool personal largess and various enrichments he appropriated from the Elysee Palace. Nothing to be nostalgic about.

He did much the same thing with Italian leaders too! INEPT .....VERY inept.

Check this out via Urgent Agenda:

“He also sent a letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano (a member of the now defunct Communist Party), expressing confidence that the United States and Italy would work together “to overcome the current global political and economic hardships and build a safer world.” The only problem with the letter was that the Italian president does not make policy; that power resides with the prime minister and his cabinet. Perhaps the White House czars have issued an ukase stipulating that the American president writes only to his peers, and thus instead of addressing himself to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, President Obama wrote to a man who holds an almost entirely ceremonial position.

“This imprecision produced the predictable kerfluffle in Rome, as the leftist media and intellectuals pondered the event and concluded that Obama had deliberately stiffed Berlusconi. The Italian prime minister thus joins his British counterpart in wondering what hope they are supposed to find in the recent change in diplomatic protocol in Washington.”

http://www.urgentagenda.com/PERMALINKS%20IV/MARCH%202009/23.AMATEURISM.HTML

"It could be that he wrote Chirac to form a bond and knows he is not President."

The Christian Science Monitor is reporting that Obama wrote to reply to a letter that Chirac wrote concerning the Jacques Chirac Foundation for Sustainable Development and cultural Dialogue.

Quote,

"The foundation is promoting access to water and medicines in west Africa, combating deforestation in the Congo Basin, and trying to save dying languages in Polynesia, according to a spokesman who helped set up the foundation."

In that context some of the wording of Obama's letter, "I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world." makes more sense.

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/03/23/obama-writes-letter-to-chirac-blogosphere-goes-crazy/

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.