The other Afghan poll

Le Nouvel Obs is trumpeting a new poll showing nearly two thirds of the French public against French military involvement in Afghanistan, a not very surprising result considering the heated parliamentary debate over permission to extend the mission and continued casualties. Sarkozy has already flip flopped on the issue, being less than enthused during the campaign but later sending some reinforcements as he was courting the Bush administration over supporting EU defense and providing posts for French generals after a full integration into NATO. The next election cycle will start to heat up over the coming year in preparation for the 2011-2012 campaign, and considering past experience, this is one issue where he might flip again if the winds still aren't blowing the right way.

D-Day this Sunday

Le Figaro previews tomorrow's changes due to the Maillé law. The AP also has a lengthy writeup.

More baby news

One way to keep the media alive in August - make up news: Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni 'to have baby in 2011'.

More hot air coming soon

Libération interviews Pierre Moscovici on the status of the perpetual rethinking of what the PS stands for. More questions, discussions, consultations, fancy web 2.0 interaction. In other words, nothing new.

Sunday papers

Today's Washington Post has an article on (surprise) Muslim veils in France. Meanwhile, the UK's (er, Irish) Independent prefers to stick to the traditional French bashing.

Bucking Trends

Carla might be already fretting that at 41 she is about to become a step-grandmother, even younger than Sarah Palin when she became a grandmother. According to this site, the average age of French mothers at their first childbirth was already 29.2 in 1997 and projected to increase for the foreseeable future. The mother in this case is 23. Not that anything is necessarily wrong with having a kid while many of your French peers are still in school, but those six years could've given Carla a bit more time to prepare for this with her psychiatrist. Besides, it makes Carla's hope for a child a bit awkward now the niece or nephew is older than any aunt or uncle.

Grandpa Sarko

In today's hard news, the site PurePeople reports that Sarkozy could be a grandfather by years end.

More Sarko from the Times

The Times brings us a rigorous empirical analysis of why "Sarkozy is not fond of being a Frenchman."

You can't win

Middle-aged joggers like Nicolas Sarkozy have longer, happier lives and Carla's diet 'made Sarkozy faint on jog'

FT on "sex dwarf" author

Remember the writer who a a month ago dubbed Sarkozy a sex dwarf in the pages of Prospect? Now the Financial Times has come out with a short review of her book The Secret Life of France - an "engaging book" - but "the writer’s apparent obsession with Sarkozy, who appears on every other page, is unsettling."

Sarko Back (and blog)

Early this morning eastern time Sarkozy was released from the hospital (see this very terse AP alert), though he has not gone back to work in Paris. In a refreshing surprise, this story has been reported quite widely in the US, even making the local evening news where I live. Some media outlets are already making wild pronouncements, with the UK Independent declaring that "The aura of youth and indestructible energy cultivated by President Nicolas Sarkozy was dealt a severe blow..." Meanwhile, the geniuses at Google who deleted this blog while I was away have brought it back from the dead!