[Le Temps, Switzerland]

Le Monde, France

Florida, Beauty

Contests, and the

White House Race

"The adjective 'liberal' is an extremely grave insult on the French left. The same is true among Republican candidates in the race for the White House. This is what one could have learned by watching the Republican primary from Florida."

By Dominique Dhombres

Translated By Kate Davis

January 30, 2008

France - Le Monde - Original Article (French)

The adjective “liberal” is an extremely grave insult on the French left. The same is true among Republican candidates in the race for the White House. This is what one could have learned by watching the Republican primary from Florida on CNN, on Tuesday, January 29. “You're a liberal,” said Mitt Romney of his rival, John McCain. “No, you’re the liberal!” McCain responded. In fact, in France the word has nearly the opposite meaning than it has in the United States.

Here [in France] it means being a staunch supporter of the market economy. There [in the U.S.], it means being a defender of a certain amount of government intervention to protect the poorest. Mitt Romney accuses John McCain of not being firm enough in confronting illegal immigration. John McCain tirelessly repeats that Mitt Romney raised taxes when he was governor of Massachusetts. On Tuesday, Republican voters in Florida decisively chose McCain, the former Vietnam soldier, who clearly savored his victory. His was often written off for dead during the primary campaign, but is more present now than ever, he has said. The big loser in Florida was Rudolf Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, who gambled everything on his image of courage after the attacks of September 11, 2001. But Republican voters in Florida clearly wanted to hear about economic issues, and not al-Qaeda …

On the Democratic side in Florida, Hillary Clinton came out way ahead of Barack Obama. The latter responded that the primary in Florida was in fact a “beauty contest,” since delegates chosen Tuesday theoretically cannot vote during the convention that will nominate the Democratic presidential candidate.

This oddity is due to a decision by local Democrats to go against the rules of their national leadership, which asked them to hold their primary a little bit later. “The Republicans had a choice between a bunch of old men, and they chose the oldest one of all. We have young candidates who resemble the real America - a woman and a Black man,” said an enthusiastic Democratic activist on CNN.

This “beauty contest” was preceded by quarrel between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama … over the question of whether or not Obama snubbed Clinton in the Senate in the minutes leading up to the State of the Union address given Monday by George Bush. Pictures showed Barack Obama clearly turning away from Hillary Clinton on the floor of the Senate.

Not at all, Obama said, he was simply in the middle of talking to someone else!

CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH VERSION

[WORLDMEETS.US POSTED January 31, 10:05pm]