The Kind of Ally We Need, If Don’t Always Want

Watching the bewildered look on Leslie Stahl's face when Nicolas Sarkozy walked off the set of 60 Minutes last week was, for me at least, worth a whole national election (one in which I have absolutely no voting power, but still).

Can there be any doubt that America's greatest asset is the outspoken and often critical ally we now have in the Elysee Palace? The French president addresses a rare joint session of Congress:

“I want to be your friend, your ally, your partner,” he said, “but I wish to be a friend who stands on his own two feet.”

He was able to chide the Bush administration to take a leadership role on climate change and to warn of the effects of the dollar’s sharp decline to a position far below parity with the euro — a decline that helps American exporters and hurts European exporters — and still draw applause.

[…]

But Mr. Sarkozy, who has always stated clearly that France was right to oppose the war in Iraq, did not utter the word Iraq. France has refused to help the United States on the ground in Iraq.

So the extraordinary embrace of the French president by American lawmakers reflected their approval of a new European leader who actually likes America and the reality that support for the Iraq war is no longer the acid test of French-American friendship.

No one can call Sarkozy "Bush's poodle" (the term never fit Tony Blair either, but that's a separate story). "Sarko l'Americain" sounds like a pool hall huckster in 30's film noir, which is appropriate given the man's love for our popular culture and showy work ethic. (What would French New Wave have been without Notorious or Public Enemy?)

Dogged in his opposition to aiding the war effort in Iraq, Sarkozy nonetheless has shown great willingness to confront the danger of a nuclear Iran and speak out against the witless anti-Americanism that bedevils his country just as witless Francophobia bedevils our own. Our oldest ally has proven, then, at the nadir of U.S. stature and influence, to be our strongest. Viva la something, all right.