The French, Vaberella, and the Obama "lovers".... [View All]

Now, this is a short point I wanted to make, or just really me recounting a discussion I had yesterday. I sat on this due to shitty internet (damn you France) and the fact I wanted to mull this over in my head to come up with some sort of understanding as to why I find the French much more logical than fellow Americans or even fellow Progressives (I'm an independent who votes Dem).

Now I'm currently living in Paris, France, it's turning from your normal one year exchange program to living here indefinitely. I wasn't thinking of myself as getting acclimated to this nation since I wasn't pulled in by the place----meaning it didn't have the same affect on me like London did when I lived there for 5 years. However, it took me about a week (after severe jetlag) to really loved it there. Anyway moving from nostalgia.

So yesterday, I dropped off my kid at the municipal center (ie government center (like Senior Center) as it's called here but it's for everyone in the town who works for the Government or have government connection---yeah even the trash man can use the halls for free). My kid, is a kid I take care of as a jeune fille au pair (or young girl babysitter). And since I had an hour to kill I decided to have a seat. Then all of the sudden this older French guy walks in rather boisterous and starts offering everyone coffee. He was able to tell that I was not one of them and started speaking English. I responded and just said I hated the stuff and then he started asking me where I was from.

I let him know I was from New York and he was like talking about how he loved it in Manhattan and a little on his travels. He was born in Algeria, but lived and worked in Toronto Canada for years and only visited the US. He had a close friend who lived on 61st and Broadway and I said...ooh MONEY! Then that brought us into talking about the economy. I tested him on his knowledge of NYC to gt an idea and he actually knew about Nuyoricans and the such (impressive since I know some New Yorkers who have no idea). I asked because I live in Harlem.

In any event, my money comment drove us into talking about the economy. And this was his question to me, which shocked me, impressed me, and left me utterly unnerved and pissed off all at the same time. And this was his question "word for word", "Why do the people in your country expect Obama to fix the economy in 10 months?" He continues on by saying, "It took Clinton at least 5 years + to repair the damage the first Bush did and Reagan did." And from what he could see, "Obama has 8 years of an economic crises and war from the second Bush."

He left me stunned. I was like well...you've said it best. I wanted to say, "out of the mouth of babes," but the man is 30 years my senior. In any event, I was left shocked. I come to DU and I have seen my fair share of threads that continuously stalk the President's decision because of Geithner, Summers, and Emmanuel and what not. I sit there and I had to wonder, the thing has just started. Only 13% or so used, and 58% allocated leaving basically more than 80% not spread out. This is supposed to be used over a period f time.

But it was more shocking to see that someone over the water and has no real vested interest in American politics understand all of this. While we have Dems here who think he's another Bush, or a corporatist or bought off by Corporations and so on and so forth.

Then because I found it interesting I asked him about health care and he was like...that was disgusting. He said, "The insurance companies are ripping you off." He thought we should take them out. He said France had great health care and they only pay 10 euros or around 20 euros for an appointment. But he said he knows of appointments (without insurance) costing near the 100 dollars in the US and he couldn't comprehend that. So apparently they pay for doctors appointments here. Also he said they pay for meds but it's extremely low cost.

Anyway he was very informative and really loved Obama. He was like, "Americans need to give him some time. He's only been President for 10 months (surprised me he said it) and if we gave Bush 8 years to create the mess we're in and the financial collapse, we need to give Obama time to clean it up like Clinton had."


In any event, I told him that he and most French people are Obama cheerleaders by the estimation of some of the people in the US. By the way he thinks teabaggers are nuts.

As an aside guys...I wasn't here during the time and I'm not sure if DU was around during the time, but did Dems criticize Clinton's economic advisor's as much as Obama's? I'm sure Repubs hated anything Clinton did. But what were the Dems like, just an honest question. I personally think Clinton did a lot of good for this nation (Haiti maybe not so much but the US--yeah). ^_^