When Hillary Clinton was running for the Senate in 1999, she went to the West Bank and kissed Suha Arafat, wife of then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, immediately after Mrs. Arafat gave a speech accusing Israel of using poison gas. Segolene Royal went to Lebanon last year and met with a Hezbollah member of parliament who, in her presence, likened Israel to Nazi Germany and denounced the "unlimited dementia of the American administration." Afterward, Royal told the man she agreed "with a lot of things that you have said, notably your analysis of the United States." (Later, she said his words likening Israelis to Nazis had not been translated for her.)
Sarkozy versus Royal was not a campaign of pale pastels. Sarkozy described it as a "debate between two ideas of the nation, two projects for society, two value systems, two concepts of politics." The French apparently agreed. A remarkable 84 percent turned out to vote, giving Sarkozy a 53 percent victory.
And French voters could not have missed Sarkozy's admiration for America or his American-style conservative policies. Sarkozy's detractors even dubbed him "Sarko the American," a nickname he embraced at some political risk. "My devotion to our relationship with America is well known and has earned me substantial criticism in France," he said last year in a speech in Washington, D.C. "I'm not a coward. I'm proud of this friendship, and I proclaim it gladly."
Could a Sarkozy-versus-Royal race be replicated next year here? As of now, it is unlikely. If there was one place Sarkozy, Royal and outgoing French President Jacques Chirac agreed, it was on the U.S. war in Iraq. They all opposed it. "I want to pay homage to Jacques Chirac, who honored France when he opposed the war in Iraq, which was a mistake," Sarkozy said when he accepted his party's nomination.
Iraq was not an issue in the French election. But if the war does not take a dramatic turn for the better in the coming year, it may be the all-consuming issue in the U.S. election -- and that will not help the American party that shares Sarko's basic vision of government.