Favors for Friends: The Colonel falls prey to the Nick and Barack power games?
By aggressively taking the lead in Libya, embattled President Sarkozy clearly hopes to shore up his political fortunes on the home front. Facing the worst approval ratings of any French president ever, Sarkozy is even at risk of being eliminated in the first round of the next presidential elections which are scheduled for April 2012. Current opinion polls have him finishing third after top-rated National Front leader Marine Le Pen and Socialist heavyweight and current IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Knowing full well that the vast majority of French voters support Operation Odyssey Dawn and view it as a welcome opportunity to reassert France’s leadership on the global stage, Sarkozy is desperately trying to cast himself in the tradition of General Charles de Gaulle. Ulf Gartzke FrumForum Blog, 3/7/2011 Well it's beyond dispute that Colonel Qaddafi has been anything but gentle at times in dealing with his citizens. For that, no man should be proud. But, I must