WASHINGTON ¨C The French are too intellectually vain to borrow others¡¯ political ideas, but too interested in style not to appreciate and appropriate that of others. So, on May 7 they might confer their presidency on a Gallic Barack Obama.
In 2008, Obama, a freshman senator, became a national Rorschach test upon whom Americans projected their longings. Emmanuel Macron, 39, is a former Paris investment banker, untainted by electoral experience and a virtuoso of vagueness. His platform resembles (The Spectator¡¯s Jonathan Miller¡¯s description) ¡°a box of chocolates from one of those upscale ¡®confiseries¡¯ on the Rue Jacob: full of soft centers.¡±
This self-styled centrist is a former minister for the incumbent president, Socialist Francois Hollande, who in a recent poll enjoyed 4 percent approval. (On April 23, the Socialist Party candidate won 6.35 percent of the vote.) Macron calls his movement En Marche! meaning ¡°on the move,¡± which is as self-congratulatory and uninformative as Obama¡¯s ¡°We are the ones we¡¯ve been waiting for.¡±
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