Obama, Sarkozy Mending Fences

When then Senator Barack Obama visited Paris during his pre-election tour of Europe in July 2008, he received a remarkable gift from French President Nicolas Sarkozy: as close to a glowing endorsement that any candidate for the White House could ever hope for from a foreign head of state. "I wish Barack Obama luck — if it's him [who wins], France will be very happy," Sarkozy told a horde of reporters in the Elysée as the U.S. presidential candidate looked on. But that conspicuously warm initial embrace was not the start of a beautiful friendship. Instead, the leaders' clashing personalities and management styles have at times overshadowed the reality that their international policy objectives are usually similar, when not identical. During their Jan. 10 meeting in Washington, however, Obama and Sarkozy will team up to focus on mutual objectives to strengthen the global economy in the hopes that they can improve something else that's common to them both — the particularly glum political perspectives at home.