MORE PROOF THAT ELECTIONS MATTER: SARKOZY AND MERKEL

AP:

Nicolas Sarkozy to stay at Bush's residence in Washington in November :

President George W. Bush will host French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Washington in November. The specific date of the visit has not been announced.

Also in November, Bush and his wife, Laura, are planning to host German Chancellor Angela Merkel for two days at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. That visit will happen on Nov. 9-10, with an agenda covering NATO, the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Merkel is one of Bush's closest European colleagues; Sarkozy and Bush are still forming a bond, and the new French leader is seen as Bush's last chance to renew relations with France. Sarkozy was treated to an all-American lunch, a ride on a speed boat and an introduction to the whole Bush family in August.

Bush's parents own an Atlantic oceanfront estate in Maine, and the president used all the trappings to make Sarkozy feel welcome.

• CAN ANY SANE PERSON IMAGINE THAT SEGOLENE ROYAL AND GERHARD SCHROEDER WOULD BE GETTING ALONG WITH BUSH AS WELL AS HAVE MERKEL AND SARKOZY!?

• NOPE.

• WHO WE ELECT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE.

• CHIRAC AND SCHROEDER WERE CROOKED WEASELS WHO UNDERCUT US AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY.

• MERKEL AND SARKOZY ARE ALLIES.

• GORE AND HLLARY AND OBAMA AND EDWARDS HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH CHIRAC AND SCHROEDER THAN THEY DO WITH MERKEL AND SARKOZY.

• IT WOULD HAVE MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IF HAD WE ELECTED GORE IN 2000, OR KERRY IN 2004.

• IF WE ELECT A DEM, IN 2006 THE DIFFERENCE WILL BE JUST AS STARK.

• FRANCE NEEDED TO AVOID SEGOLENE AS MUCH AS WE NEED TO AVOID ANY FREAKIN' DEM.

[ASIDE: THIS POST IS, IN PART, A RESPONSE TO A POST BY ROGER L. SIMON AT PJM IN WHICH SUGGESTED THAT GORE WOULD'VE DONE IN IRAQ WHAT GWB HAS DONE.

AT BEST, THIS IS WISHFUL THINKING, IMHO.

THE FACT THAT JOE LIEBERMAN COULD NOT RETAIN HIS SEAT AS A DEMOCRAT SAYS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TODAY'S DEMOCRATS. AND GORE WOULD'VE PANDERED TO THEM JUST AS HE HAS FOR THE LAST 6 YEARS.]