The New York Times is not exactly thrilled with the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy. There is no opportunity to carp about a narrow electoral margin, so the Times must make do with snarkiness. Several examples follow below. I wonder if the Times ever has used similarly harsh words along these lines for Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Sarkozy is beyond the pale for the mandarins at the Times, perhaps because he wants to be friends with America and with Israel, thereby deserving the Times disrespect.

The Times Scolds Sarkozy   [Mark Finkelstein]

Perhaps I'm being naive, but was the New York Times really rooting for the victory of an anti-American socialist in the French presidential election? Apparently so, judging by the Times' scolding editorial of this morning, France Under New Leadership .

The Times begins by warning that "Mr. Sarkozy will need to keep his own impatience, and his destructive penchant for divisive rhetoric, under firm control." Wouldn't want to offend those urban youths who burned 790 cars in the wake of his election.

The paper then confuses cause and effect in describing France's economic woes, claiming that "for most voters, the compelling issues were domestic, especially the challenge of invigorating an economy weighed down by decades of slow growth, high unemployment and suburban decay." Wrong. It was the high taxes and stifling regulation of French governments past that weighed down the economy and resulted in slow growth and high unemployment.

Despite decades of failure of statist policies, the Times is agnostic as to whether change is needed, blandly observing: "Mr. Sarkozy's call for tax cuts, smaller government, longer working hours and tougher labor policies won out over his Socialist rival's contention that she could administer the needed economic jolts while preserving the security and comfort of the social status quo."

From Maureen Dowd ($ link)

Beauty has been chased off by the Beast.

Now France waits to see just how feral and domineering Nicolas Sarkozy will be.

The lovely Ségolène Royal - more phenomenon than politician - ran a maternal, Manichaean campaign painting her intense, Napoleon-sized opponent as an immoral political animal and a brute whose election would spark riots and "a sort of civil war."

The luminous Sego did not even deign to address the "dark" Sarko by name, either in the debate or in her concession speech Sunday night.

Cartoonists have depicted the tough guy - who bullies rivals, betrays mentors and calls young troublemakers in low-income housing in the Paris suburbs "scum" - as a gargoyle, Dracula, an evil sorcerer and a devil.

(There is more, but it is copyrighted material)

Man in the News

Arrogant, brutal, an authoritarian demagogue, a "perfect Iago": the president-elect of France....

He has always been nakedly ambitious, pragmatic, calculating and not beyond betrayal to reach his goals.

He is full of nervous energy, often rocking on his toes when not at the center of attention - a habit that sometimes makes him look taller than he is in photographs but otherwise draws attention to his small statu

Nicolas Sarkozy, the passionate, pugnacious son of a Hungarian immigrant, was elected president of France on Sunday, promising a break with the past, a new style of leadership, and a renewal of relations with the United States and the rest of Europe