PARIS – Cher Mitt: Sitting here with a glass of Bordeaux Graves 2005 in my local wine bar in Paris, I am getting the distinct impression that you haven't managed a meaningful séjour in France for a while.
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It's normal, I suppose, given that you've been running hard for the presidency for far longer than my grapes were fermenting. But I'd like to invite you over here for a drink, Mitt -- you can knock back a Coke, neat -- and we can have a little tête à tête.
You said some things recently, amid the glow of your victory in New Hampshire, that perplexed me and I'd like some clarification. Enough of your campaign-trail advocacy for "economic freedom" and the creative chaos of capitalist destruction, Mitt. You're far enough ahead of your Republican competitors to afford yourself a little freedom, right? You've earned Paris. You may not believe it, but France has changed a lot since you learned to speak French here as a teenage Mormon missionary. (For one, French taxes on really rich people, like you, have gone way down.)
In New Hampshire, you talked about Europe, which is where I've been based as a journalist for most of the last decade. With the grin of a victor, you asserted that President Barack Obama "wants to turn America into a European-style social welfare state," which sounded especially sinister because you contrasted that with your own intentions to "ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity."
Listening to you, it sounded pretty nasty, though I admit my interpretation may be a bit skewed -- always a risk in countries where there is so much good, cheap wine, and so much time to enjoy it.
But I'm not clear on which part of a European-style social welfare state so offends you in 2012, four years into a global economic crisis that certainly wasn't triggered by Europe? Could it be what some Republicans refer to as a "Socialist" medical system, even though most European leaders are centrist or right wing? I would explain to you how I was glad to be able to limit my concerns about the fragile health of my Franco-American infant son during his complicated birth, without the additional fears of how many years it might put my family into debt, except that it's clear from the health care bill you passed as governor of Massachusetts, that you're already sensitive to such issues.
And what about your jab that Obama "takes his inspiration from the capitals of Europe," while you and your supporters "look to the cities and towns of America"? Is it really so bad that European leaders are trying, however awkwardly, to bring their nations together after creating lasting peace on a continent that emerged from the horrors of World War II and the Soviet Union on its doorstep? Dictatorship has been almost entirely banished from a remarkably diverse continent, while on a smaller scale, obesity, that lethal American import, remains a novelty.
But what really got me thinking over my plate of frites and moutarde was this line: "I want you to remember when our White House reflected the best of who we are, not the worst of what Europe has become."
What is "the worst," I keep asking myself? But before I hazard a few guesses, I want to thank you for your concern on behalf of the Europeans here, chain-smoking beneath winter heat lamps out on the chilly terrace. It is rough out here in Paris. Since the global economic crisis kicked in, French unemployment increased by about 25 percent. (Then again, American unemployment increased by about 50 percent in that same period -- and the U.S. rate is higher, at 8.5 percent, than the averaged unemployment rate of the eurozone's two largest economies, France and Germany.)
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