My Love Affair With Nicolas Sarkozy Has Ended. My Love Affair With Vaclav Klaus Has Begun!

I don't have many theories, and the ones I do have have are normally shallow, not very well considered, and intellectually insupportable, but they can usually be summed up in a single sentence.

One such theory of mine is: Western Europe's last best hope will be Eastern Europe.
(Notice how concise it is?)

So, when the "conservative" Nicloas Sarkozy(his father was Hungarian) defeated the "communist" Segolene Royal to become president of France, I felt vindication of my theory had begun.

After all, he had promised to make all those cheese-eaters work 40 hours a week, and he was "pro-American."
Well, at least, he pretended not to be rabidly anti-American.

There was cause for hope.

But not really.

Recently, Sarkozy has bashed "laissez-faire" economics, cowed to the Russian threat of missile installation, and condemned the Israelis for defending themselves.
He's done all of this as leader of European Union.

Hmm.

Well, his time is up, and Czech president Vaclav Klaus' has begun.
And not a moment too soon.

Klaus' resume: his father had him read Alexander Solzhenitsyn to learn about Communism's oppressiveness; he was reported to have kept a picture of Margaret Thatcher above his desk; he is a free marketer in the mold of Milton Friedman; he is quoted as saying, "I really sense the huge problems of democracy disappearing in Europe"; and, best of all, he has labeled Al Gore an "apostle of arrogance."

That's good enough for me.
And, hopefully, good enough for Europe.

But, at any rate, it's better than Sarkozy.

Adieu.