But the White House is cutting its losses as stateside critics accuse President Barack Obama of snubbing America’s oldest ally by not joiningor at least sending a high ranking officialto a huge anti-terror march that produced some of the most evocative scenes on the streets of Paris since World War II.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest acknowledged “we should have sent someone with a higher profile,” not even trying to justify the fact that largely unknown U.S. ambassador Jane Hartley was the top American official at Sunday’s events.
For all the ruckus, the White House won’t likely pay a steep diplomatic price for its political clumsiness. Amid the outrage in Washington, the most significant — and largely unnoticed — reaction to the U.S. flub came from the French themselves.
France’s skilled diplomats have rarely had trouble communicating displeasure with American actions during two centuries of a sometimes turbulent relationship between kindred nations built on common ideals but which often act with sharply different impulses on the world stage.
The reaction from Paris was temperate compared to that of the U.S. media and Obama critics, including some of the Republicans lining up to fight for his job in 2016.
Hollande and French diplomats in Washington moved quickly to offer Obama cover for the embarrassment, as soon as it became clear that the White House landed in its first big political row of 2015.
A senior official in Hollande’s office praised Obama for his strong words since the rampage put France on edge.
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Revelations by Snowden have also fed Obama fatigue in Europe, especially in Germany, and Obama’s deadly drone strikes against terror suspects have also dismayed more pacifist sectors of European opinion.
Even the current close relationship with France is the product of painstaking Obama diplomacy after a string of optical missteps.
In July 2009, the White House was forced to deny Obama had snubbed former French president Nicolas Sarkozy over a dinner invitation. The President also seemed bewildered when asked by foreign journalists why he always seemed to be in a hurry to leave Europe.
That perceived snub to Sarkozy was papered over with an unusual private dinner in the White House family quarters for Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, a year later.
Obama’s early interactions with Hollande didn’t go smoothly either. The French leader was left high and dry by Obama’s last minute decision not to order strikes on Syria — one reason why the French leader got such a warm welcome on his state visit to Washington last year.
With Hollande beset by a diplomatic crisis over his chaotic personal life, and with approval ratings already crashing to historic lows, Obama offered his guest a significant political boost – and even took him to Jefferson’s former home at Monticello.
So when Hollande rushed to Obama’s defense on Monday, he was doing more than safeguarding one of his country’s most important diplomatic relationships. He was also repaying a political favor.
