Sarkozy - A Whirlwind Meets the Mideast - by Jim Hoagland
"Action is my policy," Nicolas Sarkozy once explained to a foreign acquaintance. And movement is the French president's only constant. So welcome to the Middle East, Monsieur le President. You may have found a crisis to measure up to your metabolism. His quicksilver qualities made Sarkozy the most interesting leader on the international scene over the past year, if not the most consequential or successful. By interjecting himself into the small but brutal Israeli-Palestinian war in the Gaza Strip, Sarkozy continues to plunge headfirst where others tiptoe away."He shakes things up, calculates what has been gained or lost, and then moves on," says a close associate. "He is a lawyer, at heart as well by profession, ready to handle things on a case-by-case basis rather than insisting on organizing principles."
President of the European Union for the second half of 2008, Sarkozy "was brutal in the way he ran E.U. meetings, giving the Poles 10 minutes to decide, cornering the Germans when they tried to duck and annoying everyone over something," says another Sarkozy colleague. "But it was the only way to get decisions in an organization of 27 sovereign nations."
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