Obama hits France

That secret? A sprig of juniper in his shoe every morning. Really freshens things up.

Barry left the G20 summit to go on his first official non-summit/non-Canada state visit. First up on the menu was France, where Barry palled around with Nicolas Sarkozy just a day after he had to break up the French President's slappy fight with Hu Jintao. France has rolled out the red carpet for President Obama and has generally done all the things we did not do for Gordon Brown when he came to the US for his state visit. Don't remember that visit? It more or less involved no carpets, no televised speeches, and ended with Obama shoving Brown out the door with an armful of DVD's the White House had laying around. But Barry doesn't get that kind of treatment. Nope it's all big crowds, big welcomes, and important discussions about NATO.

President Barack Obama won enthusiastic support for his new Afghan war strategy on Friday from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who pledged more police trainers and civilian aid.

NATO leaders have been reluctant to commit significant new military forces to the deadlocked conflict despite Obama's plan to add 21,000 U.S. troops to the force of 38,000 fighting the rising insurgency. Europeans have been more enthusiastic about increasing humanitarian and development aid than adding soldiers.

"We totally endorse and support America's new strategy in Afghanistan," Sarkozy told a joint news conference after talks with Obama. France will contribute to the new U.S. approach with development assistance and more training for police, Sarkozy said.

Ahh NATO, always on board for police and grain sacks, never really on board for soldiers. It's all right, we'll just do what we always do: sprinkle in a dozen Dutch soldiers, a smattering of Spaniards, a French dinghy, and a German lieutenant with 75,000 American soldiers and viola, we have our NATO force. It is NATO's birthday, so there will be a party with hats, cake, mini-crepes, and a discussion about whether letting in the Ukraine and Georgia at the same time or one by one would tweak the Russians more.

All in all the visit will focus mainly on Afghanistan, Sakozy's efforts in Georgia, NATO, and the overarching goal of Barry's foreign jaunts: to convince the world that he really is going to listen to them, that all the stuff they hated about Bush is mostly gone, and America is now capable of acting like adults again. One advantage Obama has over Bush: he knew what the G20 was. That'll win some Europeans over.