Barack Obama is very tall. Nicolas Sarkozy isn't. The French President is used to having the hottest political spouse in the world, and suddenly he hasn't. Right now, Michelle upstages Carla, and she didn't even have to organise a photo-shoot on the roof of the White House to do it. What is a man with a bruised ego to do in such circumstances? Evidently still smarting from his G20 experience, the French President hosted a "private" lunch last week and made disparaging observations about his American rival which were bound to reach a wider audience.

Sarkozy regards Obama as inexperienced and doesn't think Michelle's taste in clothes is a patch on Carla's. All right, I made the last bit up, but it's hard not to mock a politician who seeks the limelight so shamelessly. Carla...