French Reaction to the Elections

The US presidential elections have been the topic of conversation over here for the last month. Being from the controversial land, everyone wants to know my opinion. I have been careful to give the most PC answers I can (such as: each candidate has their advantages and disadvantages) so as not to start an international incident. As the elections drew near it became rather intense. I met a British ex-pat who went so far as to propose that the odds were 3:1 that Bin Laden would be suddenly taken into custody the Sunday before the elections, thus securing another term for Bush. That obviously didn't happen, but it was an interesting idea...As one can imagine, the French are very anti-Bush regime. I'm sure changing the name to Freedom Fries didn't help any (especially since French refers to the cut of the potato and not the nationality. Oops!) Pre-election polling of my students resulted in only 1 saying he would vote for Bush, given the chance. He felt that it was the president's duty to defend the country and that after the Sept. 11 attacks the war was just. Although some Americans have lost their lives, the war against terrorism is worth fighting. When asked why they would vote for Kerry most of the students replied that, "he's not Bush." It's sad when choosing the leader of a country comes down to the lesser of two evils. Part of it, I imagine, can be attributed to the fact that the students are 14 years old and their knowledge is limited to what they've heard their parents say in passing at the dinner table. How then did the French react to the news that Bush garnered a second term? I picked up a copy of the local newspaper and have translated the highlights for you:
"A zest of incredulity, a good dose of pessimism, it was a cocktail of blues that a good number of French swallowed at the revealing of the presidential election results...Did Europe idealize Kerry, desire a vision more tolerant, more solidified in international relations in ignoring how much the Americans live, before anything, afraid of the next day, haunted by a primitive form of terrorism...The gap of incomprehension between 2 approaches to modern democracy was again widened this week; to which point America and France take the same reproach: arrogance."

There is a bar in Paris that is popular with American ex-pats on election day. A straw poll taken there on the 2nd had Kerry winning with 419 votes to Bush's 242. It is the first time since 1924 that the vote did not reflect the outcome of the elections. I'm sure as time goes on things will die down a bit and people over here will stop talking about the disaster in the States. :o)