Barack Obama has incurred the fury of France. He sent a letter to former French President Jacques Chirac rather than their current President Nicolas Sarkozy. Whoops. Huées! Another faux pas! The French don’t seem to think its funny. Read about it below and see some photos.
Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni Sarkozy
Oh dear. It seems the French are mad at us! I know this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. The French have seemed to take pride in being mad at us, but until now we really haven’t given them that much cause to be snotty towards us. Now, our President, the King of Gaffs, has given them just cause and they are nothing short of appalled.
Today’s Obama Gaff and embarrassment has to do with a letter he sent to French President Jacques Chirac that read: “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 list of Obama gaffs and diplomatic messes seems almost endless. I’ve lost track. There are several a day it seems. Of course, the media hardly notices, presumably because they are still covering for his lack of experience and sophistication. The affront is just not as important as the glow that emanates from the person of Obama.
Besides, how can people be so judgmental of him? He’s insulted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who still can’t watch the movies Obama gave him cause Obama apparently didn’t realize DVDs are formated differently in Europe. Or he didn’t care. Now he’s insulted the French President Nicholas Sarkosy. The news in Britain and France is all the place. They are debating the Sarkosy snub and the Gordon Brown snub. They are making fun of our President for his lack of polish and outraged that he’s insulting our allies.
But its all in a day’s work for Obama.
What can anyone expect? There are like HUNDREDS of countries out there and all of them have people who are in charge of them. There tons of names for the people in charge. Some of them are presidents, some are prime ministers. There’s Dear Leaders and Supreme Ayatollahs. There’s Chancellors, Kings, Queens, Emperors and Empresses. How is a man supposed to have learned all of them in just two short months? Not to mention, he has to learn all their names too and which country they go with. It has to be so confusing!! Like a crash study course before a big exam. Remember cramming for the test? It was so easy to forget which answer went with which question. Its kind of like that. Does Sarkozy go with France or Belgium? Is Brown a Prime Minister or President? Is Queen Elizabeth the Queen of England or of Europe? Look at Putin, he’s president and then prime minister of Russia. How’s someone supposed to keep that straight?
Have you ever read some of their names? They are confusing and hard to pronounce. Why do people expect him to have all of this memorized already? I bet you’d have trouble remembering it all.
Of course, most Presidents have people who remember stuff for them, but Obama hasn’t gotten around to filling all those cabinet positions yet. That’s a lot of work and he has comedy shows to do and tons of American capital to spend.
So, Obama sent a letter to the former French President rather than to their current president. The French think that Obama snubbed Sarkozy. They are saying stuff like Obama avez le cervau d’un sandwich au fromage et es betes comme tes pieds. Ewww. That’s not pretty! They are also saying that the American people will brûlez dans l’enfer and are êtes stupide for electing him.
No one in the Obama administration has commented on this faux pas because no one knows who to contact about it cause no one has appointed anyone to the office that handles faux pas as yet. We strongly suggest that the Obama Administration consider yet another layer of bureaucracy by creating an Office of Gaff Management. It would be a very busy office.
Nicolas Sarkozy - Photos
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Ok…this has to a joke, right? Please tell me the ONE didn’t do this…I’m still apologizing to England for the Gordon Brown mess.
I swear if this is true you’ll hear me screaming all the way down in Georgia !
March 24th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Diplomacy FAIL!!!
Obama was still learning about Communism from Frank Marshall Davis when Chirac was in power.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Umm, the “outrage” was just a hoax to make us look stupid. Guess it’s working:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/03/23/obama-writes-letter-to-chirac-blogosphere-goes-crazy/
March 24th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Dave - I’m aware of the circumstances, it doesn’t change the situation. He wrote a letter saying that he looked forward to working with Chirac for the next 4 years - an slap in the face to President Sarkozy. He has done the same thing to the Italian Prime Minister (I’m writing about that now). He obviously prefers to deal with the communist former heads of state rather than the current more progressive thinking conservative heads of state.
That would be like Sarkozy sending a letter to George Bush saying he would love to work with him while Obama is in office. If he did that you would be outraged.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
So true Ghost of Patton. But he’s playing footsie with REAL communist now. Putin was weaned on communism - he might just give Obama a lesson in how it really works. Unfortunately, we’re all along for the ride.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:03 am
Hey, I am French, and can confirm we are all delighted at Obama sending a letter to Chirac, rather than to Emperor Sarkozy, who is detested by over 60% of the people.
Sarkozy has been desperately trying to get a meeting with the new US president, in vain.
PS: Chirac is no communist, he actually considered Sarko, from the same party as him, as his spiritual son and heir, until Sarko stabbed him on the back some years ago.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Camille, Our news has indicated that Sarkozy was very popular in France until he started his affair with Carla Bruni and was pushing for less of a nanny state.
Regardless, we are appalled at the behavior of Obama who doesn’t seem to know one foreign leader from the other and is creating complete chaos and anarchy in the United States. But then, he doesn’t really stand for anything other than his own self interest. We are hoping we can last till the next election when we can remove him and the entire current Congress and Senate and replace them all with what we hope will be real Representatives. We are hoping he won’t be the end of us.
March 25th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
FAIL.
Yeah, this NON gaffe is a good reason for the French to be upset with the U.S. *snerk*
Freedom Fries anyone? OMG, the hypocrisy!!
“What can anyone expect? There are like HUNDREDS of countries out there and all of them have people who are in charge of them.”
Tell that to your ex-prez and spare your country the ridicule from the rest of the planet:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/e599.htm
March 25th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
gwngcom - I know its not kosher to say anything negative about The Obama, but it was inappropriate for him to send his little form letter to the former French President (and to the President rather than the Prime Minister of Italy). He has one gaff after the next. And yes, this was a gaff - or an intentional snub. Either way its unacceptable.
Obama said we have 58 states. If Bush had said that the media would still be running the clip on the news 24 hours a day and telling us all how dumb he is. Obama has made mistake after mistake like that and its barely mentioned. Good thing he has his trusty teleprompter with him so he’ll know what to say. They really don’t need to let him go out and try to speak off the cuff.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:24 am
Bush was the king of Gaffs. As Gwyncom points out, Freedom Fries were a result of US snubbing France for not invading Iraq with us. Who’s bright idea was it to free the Iraqis, when Bin Laden was still on the loose? The UN commission couldn’t find any weapons of mass destruction, but Bush insisted to go ahead anyway.
We invent “Freedom fries” to snub a country that didn’t follow us on the biggest blunder any president can make?
You want to pick on Obama, go after his plan to get the US out of debt.