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European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch – 11 July | 84 comments (84 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Europe (4.00 / 4)
trademark salesmanship

Here go the media inventing a tag to hang round a neck. In this case it's an ambiguous one. "Salesmanship" can be positive, Sarko can be persuasive etc - as we see in several news items this morning. But a "salesman" is not a "statesman", oh no.

Sarko is putting his foot in a lot of doors at once and eating up his courtesy credit very, very quickly. There are doors that will, inevitably, bang in his face.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 11th, 2007 at 01:47:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe (4.00 / 3)
It's an interesting and perceptive framing economically conveyed in a single word.

The implication is that Sarko is a parvenu, a noisy outsider trying to get in, and a bit of a spiv.

All of which is true. Although if he'd followed the neo-con line more faithfully I'm sure he'd have been hailed as magisterial, effortlessly dominant, a born leader, and all the rest of the usual rubbish.

So the undertone of contemptuous disapproval is there for spiteful reasons. He's not quite a neo-con creature, and this is telling him that because of that resistance he's never going to be the insider he wants to be.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Jul 11th, 2007 at 11:11:14 AM EST
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European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch – 11 July | 84 comments (84 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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