The Economist had an interesting blog today about Sarkozy at the G20 summit and his recent rather indiscreet bragging. Apparently Mr. Sarkozy has become proud of his summit theatrics and has gotten awfully eager to show his fellow Frenchmen that they've elected someone who knows more about running government than Obama does.

The blog also contains a link to an article by French left wing columnist Bernard Guetta who is surprisingly uncritical of Sarkozy (a man most people on the left here have compared to a fascist at one time or other).  According to Guetta, French President Sarkozy now wants to distance himself from Obama in order to establish France as a rival center of economic power, a sort of "alternative" to failed American liberalism.

Now speaking as someone who has lived in Paris for several years, I have to say, this is hardly news: since De Gaulle pulled out of NATO, every French leader has wanted to establish France as a rival centre of power to the US--it's a prerequisite for getting elected. So Guetta's analysis is almost surreal, as if he were pointing out that Sarkozy lives in the Elysée palace and certainly has taste in his choice of homes. Of course, the French president wants to establish France as an alternative to American values: that's what French presidents do.

What I think this sudden love fest shows is that Obama's election has given the French a mild but persistent identity crisis. How can you be the moral and economic counterweight to a country that has just elected someone who embodies so many inherently "French" values? For Obama is a very smart man and intellectual (this is one of the French virtues) and he is African American (the French are very proud of their "egalitarian" values). Obama is also not a rampant free marketeer, all qualities a Frenchman might like to see in his or her own presdient.

My bet is that Sarkozy and the French left (as in the communist left) now find themselves on the same proverbial psychiatric couch wondering how to oppose someone they really should like very much but can't see a political future in it for them if they do. Sarkozy wants credit for anticipating the financial collapse (and for opposing US capitalism) and the French left here want to crow about the failure of the free market. How can you do this while embracing the president of the most capitalistic country in the world?

It'll be interesting to see how much psychology Clinton and Obama will need to get this ally off the couch and onto the negotiating table when more is needed of France in the economic crisis.